Corny Thoughts

     May 15, 2010. This is how my last attempt at raising corn ended. Several inches of rain and high winds finished my hopes and dreams of a corn crop for that year. The rain softened the ground and the wind knocked it down.     
     Unfortunately it didn't stand back up. I wound up with one stalk left and it didn't make an ear. And I had such wonderful plans. I was going to raise my own food. Grown in my garden. Freeze it, can it, preserve it, ANYTHING. It wasn't just the corn though, it wiped out most of my tomato plants, all of my cucumbers and my beans and carrots. And I didn't decide to try it again until this year.

      I really decided it last year when I saw pictures of Glass Gem corn and decided I wanted to try growing some of it. Not for eating or canning or even for popping which is what it could be used for since I think it is technically popcorn. But for decorating, because let's face it, that is some pretty corn. But it wasn't going to be easy. Evidently this beautiful corn is fairly rare.
     I found some seeds for sale on Amazon. 8 seeds for $20. That would be $2.50 a seed. Maybe I needed to rethink this whole corn growing thing. So I found another supply for the seeds. I had to get on a waiting list and when the seeds became available, I bought me a packet. 6.5 grams/50 seeds and it only cost me $7.95 + $2.95 shipping so $10.90 for seeds. I got lucky, my package had 51 seeds.
     I worked me up a little spot of ground. Added some compost. Worked the ground again. And when the farmers started planting corn in the fields, I planted my seeds. I didn't use a bunch of fertilizer so my corn didn't grow quite as fast as the corn in the fields. Or maybe thie corn just doesn't grow as fast as those varieties of corn do.

     Now I have this at the top of some of my 41 corn stalks.
      My corn is tasseling!
     This is the male part of a corn stalk. The part that drops the pollen. The little things you see hanging down is where the pollen is found. Pollen falls down when the wind blows or birds land on the plants. I want the pollen to fall. It's how pollination occurs. Without the pollination, I won't get seeds.

     This is what I have at the bottom of my corn plants. That wild hair that looks like a troll, that's the silk. Silk is how the pollen gets to the kernel. So these things are needed for me to get the beautiful gem-like corn kernels shown in the second picture.
     I'm realistic, I know I don't have any corn on the ears yet. I may not wind up with any kernels of corn on the ears. But I am hopefully optimistic.
     But I'm further along than I was 3 years ago when the wind and the rain wiped me out. Wind and rain may wipe me out again. But if it does, I'm not going to wait 3 years to try it again. I'll try it again next year. And if I get wiped out then, I'll try it again.

     If you would like to get a little perspective, the 51 kernels of corn I got that cost me $7.95 would translate into a 50# bag costing over $25000. This would be really expensive seed corn. But if I had bought the 8 seeds at $20? Well that would translate out to around $450000 for a 50# bag.
WHEW!