Lots of Corn

The corn is ready. I picked 50 ears Saturday for a five-course, local organic dinner we put on for about 30 friends. I'd estimate there are another 100 ears ready to pick. That should be enough for the two of for the winter, although it is a bit less than I was hoping to get. We'll definitely grow corn next year.

Beans are up

My bush beans are up. It took almost 10 days, it has been so cool. Soon they will be big enough so that I can discern the rows well enough to start attacking the grass. I plan to hoe a lot and maybe put down some strips of black plastic. I planted 30 ft. rows of bush beans and will plant several more rows.

The corn I planted at the same time is not yet up, and the corn I planted a month ago never did come up. I attribute that to poor seed. I got it for free and it was probably packed for 2008. The free carrot seed also did not germinate well. I will replant carrots.

Planting Corn -- will it grow?

I nave planted about a fourth of my 1/4 acre in sweet corn. We'll see how it will do. I did not do much soil preparation -- just the original plowing and two times over with the tractor rototiller and then once with the hand tiller. I made long furrows with the hoe and then spread the seeds by hand. I planted approximately 4 inches apart and covered with about half an inch of soil. That's a bit close for corn, but I don't expect to get a very high germination rate in this grassy soil, and seed is cheap.
The problem I see is clearly visible in the picture: lots of competition from the abundant grass rhizomes. It seems that the soil here is mostly grass roots. Those thick rhizomes will grow new grass stems and it won't take long. The challenge this year is to kill enough of the grass to let the corn crow. Time will tell.
The early corn I planted 3 weeks ago did not germinate. I dug among the rows and found un-germinated corn seeds. The seed was given to me free and it was probably last year's seed. it lost its vitality over the year.