Sweetcorn, what happened?

[Smokerbill]

As others have said, Incomplete pollination. Next year though, don't discount manual pollination for small plots of sweet corn. Sacrifice one ear and take it around with you, manually transferring pollen to each of the other stalks.

Pollen is formed on the tassels.

 

[Salt and timbers]

Pollen is formed on the tassels.

Yes. I should have been more specific for people new to doing this. Take your ear around with you and go tassel to tassel with it.

 

[Smokerbill]

Yes. I should have been more specific for people new to doing this. Take your ear around with you and go tassel to tassel with it.

My understanding is that the pollen transfers from the tassels to the cornsilk on the ears. So cutting of a tassel and brushing on the silk would be the way to pollinate corn.

 

[Salt and timbers]

My understanding is that the pollen transfers from the tassels to the cornsilk on the ears. So cutting of a tassel and brushing on the silk would be the way to pollinate corn.

Here's a link from the university of Florida ag. Extension. The manual corn pollination is the second half of the document. I'm not looking to have an argument about who knows more about this. I don't claim to be an expert, I'm just trying to help OP out.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/HS398

The specifics of pollination are quoted below:
"Two methods of pollen transfer may be used with corn. Cut an entire tassel, and use it as a wand, shaking pollen grains (dust) onto the silks. Alternatively, strip the tassel and deposit the pollen from the anthers directly onto the silks. Either way, the pollen is transferred. Be thorough when dusting the pollen onto the silks, so chances for a bountiful harvest are increased."

 

[Smokerbill]

Here's a link from the university of Florida ag. Extension. The manual corn pollination is the second half of the document. I'm not looking to have an argument about who knows more about this. I don't claim to be an expert, I'm just trying to help OP out.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/HS398

The specifics of pollination are quoted below:
"Two methods of pollen transfer may be used with corn. Cut an entire tassel, and use it as a wand, shaking pollen grains (dust) onto the silks. Alternatively, strip the tassel and deposit the pollen from the anthers directly onto the silks. Either way, the pollen is transferred. Be thorough when dusting the pollen onto the silks, so chances for a bountiful harvest are increased."

No argument here. It just seems like your method and the .edu publication are saying different things.

You said:

Sacrifice one ear and take it around with you, manually transferring pollen to each of the other stalks.

The article you mentioned states:

Cut an entire tassel, and use it as a wand, shaking pollen grains (dust) onto the silks.

According to that there's no need to take an ear of corn off of the corn stalk. The tassel is cut from the top of the corn plant, then shaken onto the silks of each ear of corn.

 

[akroberts1085]

You n

Hi all,

It seems I am posting in every forum today!

I am aiming to grow as much of our produce as possible. I would love to can and dehydrate etc but this is not popular and so very expensive to get started in the UK. So we will try eating seasonally and freezing what we can for winter.

That is all in the future. This year was about growing a few things, having a practice, seeing what works and what goes wrong.

We've had some success. Namely cucumbers, courgettes and Tomatoes. We managed 4 broccoli despite the caterpillars and butterflies. 1 cauliflower, potatoes were ok. Green beans would have been better had the chickens not trashed them. Lettuce I've struggled with! Brussels sprouts we are still waiting on, along with sweet potatoes and peppers. Chilli's were ok.

To my question, what on earth happened to my sweetcorn it was really juicy! Have we picked it too soon or has half not pollinated maybe?

You need to add nitrogen to the soil after your corn starts to sprout the corn cob. The cheapest way is to either get a at home haircut or go to the salon and ask if they have any hair they would like to get rid of. Hair contains more nitrogen than manure. You put it on the soil around your corn. Also using the debris from around eucalyptus trees is great for growing everything.

 

[Birdsonghill]

This is called ear pullback and is a sign of poor nutrition or overpopulation.
There is no excuse for poor nutrition if you have chickens! You can apply 5 tons of chicken manure per acre which comes to about 250lbs per 1000 SQ ft. The FRESHER the better. Just mix it in soil as fresh as possible before you plant. Manure loses nitrogen the longer it sits and corn needs a lot of nitrogen. The soil will help hold it in

For planting population, usually 14 inch square grids work best for me. So each stalk 14 inches from each other. Plant corn starting early spring in blocks of 100sqft, then you won't need to worry about pollination. Pollination problems look like skipped kernels instead of pullback like you have there.

I use chicken coop litter on my corn with great success. The pumpkins squash and melons need lots of food too, but chicken waste is a bit risky there. I use composted chicken litter , general farm leaves and plant waste from my compost piles in very generous amounts in the planting mounds. They grow a large and healthy crop for me to enjoy and sale. Under feeding is a common problem, especially with corn but failure to grow abundant large crops of melons is similar. Compost feeds the entire season when used generously and improves the soil and encourages earth worms. Compost works for corn too but is too valuable for me to use that much for growing a corn crop when chicken waste alone works great! I have not bought any fertilizer but lime and fish emulsions in the last thirty five years or so. I use the emulsion on growing new transplant seedlings or as a little boost sometimes.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

I'm trying to avoid the pesticides and so I did a washing up liquid spray which I think aided the demise of the green beans. It was a lemon and aloe soap

The lack of nutrients could be the reason for the squash failure I fed but probably not enough if their hungry plants. I'm struggling with pumpkin, I've had tons of male flowers but the small start of a pumpkin keeps falling off! I've lost 4 and about to lose 5th by the looks of it. I thought blossom end rot so I've upped the calcium and general feed but no joy.

Keep trying because gardening is always a challenge. Pumpkins can do that if they are not pollinated. Look into self pollinating or if tje pumpkin was pollinated and is growing but small, a lot of rain can make them fall off. I don't use tradional pesticides but if bugs are eating small seedlings you can try neem oil.