Lousy Corn Crop
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar
Wendy ripped up our corn from a small east facing bed by the front gate. This was a disappointing round of corn. It looks like we had a number of issues which gave us a small harvest of only about off the corn.
- insect issues, mostly ants had taken over that bed
- some sort of fungus was present on about a 1/3 of the cobs (they were tossed out)
- the plants were short, perhaps low nitrogen or planted too closely
Fortunately corn is a easy transplant and we already have round two in the ground with over 1' of height.
9 comments:
When did you plant your corn? I grew up in Nebraska and there was an old saying about corn "knee high by the 4th of July". Since you are already harvesting I wonder if maybe it got planted a little early, but being New Mexico instead of Nebraska it is different.
If the fungus was grey or blackish it was a big mistake to get rid of it.
http://mexicanfood.about.com/od/faqandglossaries/g/huitlacoche.htm
It is a favorite fungus to put in stews and quesadias in Mexico and points south.
You guys didn't have corn smut did you? It's actually edible and quite good for you. Plus it's fun to say.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_smut
It's really scary looking though.
In Mayan times, corn was planted in a triple crop configuration... Corn, beans and squash in the same bed. Mexican subsistence farmers still use this traditional method since it is (for them) the optimal configuration for growing the most amount of food on the smallest plot.
The beans would climb the stalks of the corn, and their presence would add nitrogen to the soil (being the habit of legumes). The squash would spread out over the ground under the corn, and be a sort of living mulch to help retain soil moisture.
I'm unfamiliar with the techniques involved, so I can't offer any practical advice as to how to apply this concept, just that I know of it, and perhaps it would be of benefit to you considering the current difficulties with corn.
A shame I don't like most varieties of squash.
mmm, huitalacoche! If you have that you have a delicious goldmine. I just ate tons of this in Mexico and it's called the Mexican truffle for good reason!
Abby the corn grower says it should be 1' between plants and 2' between rows. Since it's wind pollinated you need a fair amount in one place blooming at the same time to ensure all the ears get pollinated, or you can manually move pollen from the male flowers on top of the plant to the ends of the stigmas (the corn silk). Look online for manual pollination since there's a complicated bagging and cutting technique to make it more efficient.
Eww... corn smut? It may well be edible, but you can have my share of it, thank you.
They sell it in cans in mexican markets. Black crud in a can does not appeal to my taste buds.
"Black crud in a can does not appeal to my taste buds."
Nor mine.
But these guys (may have) had access to fresh-grown stuff, which is much different.
The best tacos I've ever eaten had a huitlacoche & nopal filling.
Maybe so Joel, and I'll certainly try it if given the opportunity because I'll try anything once...
But the appearance of smut infected corn (huitlacoche) is pretty grotesque, and I sincerely doubt I could entirely negate the psychological effect of that.
Fair enough.
Some of the mold that I enjoy tremendously in the context of cheese (especially the blue and white varieties), is seriously disgusting if it shows up in places I don't want it.
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