A garden question, but not for garden section

[Spookwriter]

How many here grow corn?
Sweet or field...no difference.

My question is can I grow corn in container
like a five gallon bucket?

Why, you ask?

To confuse the neighbors of course.

My garden is visible from the road. Something people
just naturally look at as they drive by. I'm thinking I can
maybe grow corn in one place...and they see it. Watch
it grow. Then I can move it to the other end of the garden
at night.

Yes, I know my neighbors well. If this worked, you can
bet they would notice and talk about it.

And laugh.

Drawing up plans for a new "cannon". Now, you know I
don't own a real cannon. But again...they aren't sure.

I'm thinking of building it, PVC construction and "hooking"
it to my pickup (seldom used) and backing it into the yard
as to be visible. From any distance, it should look real enough.

Sping is coming...Hana's friends are asking when the woods
will be "decorated" again. Everything was removed for winter.
The woods are very much something Hana and her friends
look forward to.

And with a new year...comes the need for a few props.


Builder Spook

 

[KristyHall]

There is a difference. Field corn, dent corn, and flour corn, tend to be hardier than sweet. You might be able to if you plant a compact, early maturing, small variety of a hardier pop corn or dent corn. Pop corn might even be the best. I would not recommend having more than one plant per bucket though. Corn is a finicky plant.
Check out Seed Savers Exchange. They have a huge selection of hardier corn seeds

 

[Mtn Laurel]

Yes. I've done it. Grew corn in a big pot on my deck just because I wanted to. It was a tall, beautiful plant but it didn't yield even one ear of corn. Grew one plant per large pot, about the size of a 5 gal. bucket or larger.

As long as they don't look for a tassel, the neighbors will be fooled.

 

[jjdward]

I hope it works just for the sake of knowing your neighbors will be doing a double take!!! If you do it, let us know how it goes!

 

[bluesub]

Hey Spook,

I saw this in one of those gardening catalogs and I wanted to try it this year, I just figured the raccoons would get it... maybe I will try it...

 

[carlye828]

You can get corn to grow in a bucket just fine, but in order for it to pollinate and produce, you need at least a 10' x 10' area of it.

 

[EggsnQuackers]

Burpee has a new variety of container corn this year.
I grew some Kandy Korn in an old stock tank last year. I got one ear from 7 plants... but the stalks did look quite lovely.

 

[Bunnylady]

You can get corn to grow in a bucket just fine, but in order for it to pollinate and produce, you need at least a 10' x 10' area of it.

Odd. I have never grown that much corn at one go (nor have several other backyard gardeners that I know), yet it always produces for us.

If you have the buckets already, make sure you have good drainage in them. If it were my project, I'd be using those big ol' black nursery pots (we seem to have a lot of those around here, gee I wonder why

). For corn to produce, you want it to grow as fast and happy as it can - which means excellent light, fertility, moisture and drainage. If you just want it for looks, those things are less critical, but any stress on the plants will stunt them.

On the cannon - we have several lights in our yard. Hubby used PVC for the lampposts, and you have to get pretty close to realize they aren't metal. Depending on how well you build the "carriage," I'd think you could keep the neighbors wondering for quite a while!

 

[JD4570]

Hey Spook. I would suggest using Silver Queen hybrid sweet corn, I've been told it does well in containers but never tried it myself.

As for the cannon, I would use a 3" schedule 80 PVC tube with a short section of 4"schedule 40 for the "Reinforcement " piece. I'm not sire what size cap would go on the breech end. Then paint it battleship grey for realism.

 

[canesisters]

Corn should grow just fine in a container - but you might want to go for something a little bigger. Have you heard of the 3 sisters method for growing corn/beans/squash? Several corn plants are grown close together with the beans climbing them and the squash providing weed control. Anyway, folks have been doing it for hundreds of years. I would suggest using those plastic 'totes' - they're nice and deep and would give room for maybe 4 or 5 plants... you could even plant them in row!


I DO hope you're going to post pictures of the canon. And - what's with the woods???