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Post by macmex on May 30, 2018 13:59:19 GMT -6
Well, interplanting a short season and long season corn would be an interesting experiment. I have no idea how it would work. Try it and let us know!
I'm sure that crossing between varieties would temporarily decrease the struggle with inbreeding depression. For a bit, you'd actually have hybrid corn with hybrid vigor.
I think that hilling or not may depend more on conditions. If we don't have high winds, I think I could get away without hilling. When I did a close together planting, I couldn't hill. The corn did alright, though, it did get knocked over once. Once is alright. Twice is not good. Three times and... probably you're out, when it comes to corn. It will stand itself back up the first time or two. After that, it won't.
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Post by oldhack on Jun 2, 2018 11:20:02 GMT -6
I think maybe they are correct, and that maybe my problems are actually associated with corn root worm, otherwise known as a cucumber beetle. Do you have cucumber beetles by chance? I,ve realized that they definitely round about here in sc I just didn't want to look for another bug that didn't appear to be damaging anything.. do you have any advice on corn borers? My corn is also plagued by them.
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Post by oldhack on Nov 9, 2018 6:17:21 GMT -6
I gathered 60 lbs of corn, 20 lbs of cowpeas from the garden. Most plants stood up fine to wind with only in between every other row being used for hilling. More than 2/3s of my garden is weed free with a rapeseed cover crop growing, I find that where I trenched out for hilling to be a good spot to dispose of the old corn stalks, cowpea vines buried there with moldy seeds that sprouted well putting more nitrogen in the soil, the young cowpeas soon to be killed by upcoming cold weather, even 2 corn plants sprouted and grew well with all the excess nitrogen. It was interesting to note the mesquakie Indian seeds I planted where much smaller than the ones I harvested. Good hominy and grits to fuel my bi weekly marathon running. I,m not sure if I,ll put down any nitrogen when I plant my corn where the rapeseed is growing this year. I wonder how many weeks before planting I should terminate and dig in the cover crop. Also rapeseed is quite tasty, quite tasty indeed, eat it with eggs and onions every day. Now I just have to wait for spring to be a real gardener again.
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Post by macmex on Nov 9, 2018 8:17:12 GMT -6
Sounds like you have a really good program going in your garden. I don't believe rape adds any nitrogen to the soil, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything. I rarely add nitrogen to my corn. I just mulch with rabbit manure and old hay from the rabbit shed. That's not much nitrogen, but it's good for the soil. I move my corn plantings around, from year to year.
I need to shuck and shell this year's harvest. Looks good.
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