Pollinating Corn Questions

[Donna]

At the Garden Visit a few of us got to talking about growing corn and pollination. Every 'silk' is a kernel on the cob and needs to be pollinated. This is why it is recommended to plant corn in large blocks to ensure that the cobs are full when harvested. However, OP sweet corn doesn't store well and really needs to be picked and eaten as soon as it is ready.

For our own consumption though, to free up beds and ensure a constant supply without a glut it would be more practical to plant say three corn seeds every week. As mentioned however, this is likely to result in half filled cobs due to poor pollination.

A few ideas were bounced around yesterday, would appreciate any feedback or advice:

* Cover the male flower (at the top of the plant) with a large paper bag tying it firmly, then tap it each day to catch the pollen. Cut the silks and carefully brush them with the pollen to ensure pollination of each one for a couple of days.

* Rubbing the pollen directly onto the silks

* Shaking the male flower each day when it isn't windy

One question that came up, if we use the first method (which is recommended for seed saving) - how long does the pollen last? For example, if we bagged say three plants and captured heaps of pollen could we put the excess in the fridge and use it on the next plants...

[Mark Thomson]

I think you will have to try it and see. Pollen may last only a few days at the most. after all any exposure to extremes may quickly deteriorate the pollens viability.
When I was growing corn I worked the beds in L shaped plantings, then sowed staggered crops of corn in the same L shaped pattern each succesive sowing done 3 to four weeks after previous planting. All the corn sowings were in double rows.I hope the image comes through to illustrate this.

Corn will sit ripe on the stalk for a few weeks just squish the grubs in the tips to reduce there impact at this stage.
As a side comment, I think we could think about this problem and solve it through another solution. When we lived at Galangowan we shared the following tasks of growing corn, peanuts, potato, onion and similar produce that takes space from our general cropping beds. Family groups where involved in the many crucial stages of growing the crop, ranging from site prep with the old grey fergy to harvesting and then distributing the crop between the famlies who pitched in.. Could this be done between local friends in the city?

[Donna]

Thanks Mark, it's a great way of sowing corn - why didn't I think of that?! My beds might not be big enough though I will certainly be trying a few different methods this summer - we really like corn!

I was under the impression corn had to be picked within a short period of being ripe - last year a lot of mine was too hard like popcorn by the time I picked it, that's why I was asking somewhere else when people know the right time to harvest.

Using myself as an example, I live in the suburbs and have a 700sq m section. While the house is small, I have 6 1/2 vegetable beds that are 2.4 x 1.2m, along one side there is about 2m wide the whole length which has been planted mostly with (young) fruit trees/ shrubs with the same happening partly on the other side. My soil is quite poor and still being built up, I am also still learning a lot about growing my own food organically. At the moment I am struggling to get enough for ourselves - let alone any surplus!

It would be great to be able to co-operate and grow and share our produce, but basically what I am trying to say is I don't think I have enough room to be able to do that on any large scale. When my beds are working and I am beating the bugs/ weather/ water etc so I get the food, 4 beds might be enough. Then I would have two beds that could be used for a communal/ share crop. However I think that would only allow me to share with a limited number of people, depending on the crop of course...

[Elaine de Saxe]

I'd love to have enough vege-growing neighbours to share with! Wishful thinking aside ... it's a good system, that L bed. Thank you for the inspiration.

What I understand of pollen is its viability is short-lived and it would vary, of course. Wind-blown pollen ... short or long viability? No logic to follow here. When my corn is big enough to try I will be bagging it in the night and using it first thing next morning. Might have something to report in a few weeks :-)

Weirdly, though, even though I've usually helped in the pollination - or I fondly think so - sometimes I get beautifully full cobs, other times random kernels. Variety of corn? Vagaries of the wind? Wrong time of the month? Take your pick!

I've often grown Balinese corn from Edens with mixed results as above. Now I'm grasping at kernels and planting some F1s from the local supermarket, my Balinese seeds finally succumbing to age. Naturally I did not keep any seeds ;-( Anyway, I'll give the idea a whirl and report back.

[Addy]

I seem to have slightly androgynous male flowers - a few of my corn plants have grown kernels on the male flower stalks - here's a picture:

[Elaine de Saxe]

Yep, you get that! Is it a heritage variety? I noticed it particularly with Balinese corn.

[Addy]

They were Bunnings seedlings. Picked 2 cobs today, small but simply delicious :)

[Florence]

That happend to one batch which I planted late in the season before... I thought it was because it's too cold for them as they were pretty stunt with short status too.... Those were supermarket seeds... the first sowing was normal...

[Elaine de Saxe]

More grist to the experimental mill! :-)

[Scarlett Patrick]

yes i've had stunted ones and crazy anthers too. my balinese corn was pretty dodgy. sometimes i wonder if the heritage corn is too inbred. all the more reason to save it. but we need big fields of it for viability. sigh.

[Scarlett Patrick]

i've never done hand pollination, and very rarely get even a few kernels blank. i always plant in clumps not lines. i reckon some would get carried around by insects as well, this might explain the difference. obviously really windy weather on the wrong day is bad - good to protect your corn with windbreaks

[Florence]

Great diagram Mark, should definately give that a try next time!

[Vanessa Thompson (pomare)]

umm im not sure whoes post it was but i heard someone say that her mum said you know when corn is ready when the silks come away freely. I pulled one or two every couple of days and only last week did it come away freely and to my surprise yes they were ready. (i was thinking by the size of them but if i had left them to grow, i think i would have lost them all to caterpillers, as the ones that had caterpillers were a bit bigger then the 6 i got to harvest for my self)
(i got out and gave all my stalks a bit of a shack each day and watched which way the pollen was going and even bent over one or two and gave a shack to the lower plants and even hand pollinated all at once. heehee) pollen was only around for 3 days and gone on the forth.... i had the letter E shape style of rows plated 12 on that letter E. 3, 3, 3 and 6 on the back.
.Also ive seen some people plant in about 20-30 plants or seeds in a 3m by 1m tub or planter and because there closely planted they produced very well, very close together or bunched? Im going to try this as soon as i make a plater box or something up. (one example of this is on that utube video with the stackable planters for herbs and lettuce, click on the web site and they have larger planter boxes but i wouldnt pay that prize they are asking)