# Sweet Corn Blues



## Wado (May 15, 2011)

It's either too much rain or not enough now my corn just looks sick. I went to a couple of agriculture websites and it looks like mine has some kind of foliar blight. There is a disease called " Stewarts Disease " caused by a beetle but I don't know if that ever affects us here in Texas but looking at the pictures mine appears to be ate up with it. The third or fourth leaf is yellow and is stuck to the stalk and won't let the whorl form, so the stalk can't develop and then it rots. Too late to treat for the beetles, they hit the plants when they are seedlings so only time will tell. I thought maybe all this high wind had just burned the plants and twisted them up. I see a little bit of yellow leaves in the corn crops around Matagorda and Calhoun County so maybe it is just the wind, might have to talk to one of the farmers. Hope I am the only one with this problem.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

I just dissected one of my diseased corn stalks and found worms, most likely corn bores and some beetle looking critters. Time for the Permethrin.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

We've had unseasonably cool weather around here...don't know how much that has affected yours but my corn is growing very slowly this year so far and taking two weeks to just germinate...no bug problems here...yet. I still have a big planting yet to go and will probably wait for higher soil temps.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

I had germination in seven days and as usual the low spots that held rain had a poor stand. Mine is just sitting there about eight inches tall getting shredded by the wind, it came up the twelfth of March so it's almost had a month to grow. I did hit it with a tiny bit of fertilizer last Sunday and watered it in, sure made the grass perk up. I had bores bad one year but still had a good yield, guess everything is stressed with the temperature swings. I got my peas and squash planted Monday hoping for a shower but no luck so far.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

"Sweet Corn Blues".... Sounds like a song that Johnny Quest would write and sing.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

I'm gonna be singing it if I don't get some corn this year, and I don't sing too good.sad3sm


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## MichaelW (Jun 16, 2010)

I don't normally do sweet corn but did this year. It took 10 to 12 days to germinate and is growing very slowly it seems to me. Its been up for little over 3 weeks and is only about 4" tall. Its in a new raised bed that has plenty of compost.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*74 Days*

I planted my corn 74 days ago and just pulled the first ear. We've had over seven inches of rain here since Sunday so I need waders to walk out into my garden. I have a bad feeling my tomatoes are going to get smoked and they already have late blight. I guess I will hit them with some fungicide but I think what's done is done. The plants are loaded except for the Big Boys, they kept dropping blooms and started showing blight a few days ago. The ear I sampled is Peaches and Cream and looks like it can go a few more days. Most of the G90 silks are still bright purple so I know they need to go a few more days. Been a weird year.


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

Wish I had about 200 ears just like that one in the freezer.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

I hope I have 200 ears out there, ain't looking too good. I usually cut mine off and make semi cream style and freeze it but I might just freeze whole. Those little ears don't yield much but are sure good boiled for about a minute.


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

My favorite thing on the grill.


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## MichaelW (Jun 16, 2010)

A little over a month ago I posted that my corn was growing slow. Only 4" tall. Well it finally took off and is almost 4 1/2' tall now. Or at least it was. We had a bad storm last night and and this morning all my corn was laying on the ground. I propped it up as best I could but not sure if it will survive or not. Winds last night reported in excess of 40 mph and 4" of rain in about 1 1/2 hours.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

MichaelW said:


> .... We had a bad storm last night and and this morning all my corn was laying on the ground. I propped it up as best I could but not sure if it will survive or not. ...


If its any consolation, that happens to me usually a couple of times during the growing season. Prop them up with dirt pushed around the roots as soon as possible after it happens and they will usually be just fine. The longer you wait, however, the less effective this technique is. If the roots get dry before you prop the plants, the chances of success are very slim to none...but otherwise you should be enjoying some fine corn soon. Good luck!


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

Meadowlark said:


> If its any consolation, that happens to me usually a couple of times during the growing season. Prop them up with dirt pushed around the roots as soon as possible after it happens and they will usually be just fine. The longer you wait, however, the less effective this technique is. If the roots get dry before you prop the plants, the chances of success are very slim to none...but otherwise you should be enjoying some fine corn soon. Good luck!


Great advice! When storms blow my crops over I'm with lark I prop them back up ASAP and they keep on keeping on.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Wado said:


> I planted my corn 74 days ago and just pulled the first ear. We've had over seven inches of rain here since Sunday so I need waders to walk out into my garden. I have a bad feeling my tomatoes are going to get smoked and they already have late blight. I guess I will hit them with some fungicide but I think what's done is done. The plants are loaded except for the Big Boys, they kept dropping blooms and started showing blight a few days ago. The ear I sampled is Peaches and Cream and looks like it can go a few more days. Most of the G90 silks are still bright purple so I know they need to go a few more days. Been a weird year.


I sure hope that it isn't late blight on your tomatoes. You can limp along and still get a decent crop with early blight (which can happen later in the growing season as well) and some of the other bacterial and fungal problems. Late blight is a hard and fast killer.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

It's late blight. It's hitting all the gardens down here with the humidity. We should have been spraying prior to the fungus bloom but it seems like it rains twice a day so what can you do. I went with a friend of mine to the county agent Tuesday with a bunch of leaves and confirmed what I had suspected. I treated my healthy plants but we are expecting a heavy rain and that should do them in. The sad thing is the plants are loaded, hope they ripen without turning black. I believe the translation for Blight is " Plant Destroyer" from Latin background.


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

I've stood corn back up many times.Well worth your time.One year I said to heck with it.The ground dried out,the stalks grew back straight but looked like question marks,and set the ear development back,but still made a crop.


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## MichaelW (Jun 16, 2010)

peckerwood said:


> I've stood corn back up many times.Well worth your time.One year I said to heck with it.The ground dried out,the stalks grew back straight but looked like question marks,and set the ear development back,but still made a crop.


Well the wind and rain did it again last night. Everything almost flat on the ground again. Propped it back up and blocked it up with various pieces of wood. Hope this works. 6 1/2" of rain in a little over 36 hours. I have some old hog panel and am thinking of mounting it about 2 to 3' above the ground the next time I plant and let the corn grow up through it. Anyone ever done anything like that. The mesh is about 5" X 5" so the plants should be able to grow right through it.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*Redwing Black Birds*

The dang black birds are pecking the tops out of the ears looking for worms! I watched them with binoculars. I guess the pollen has done it's magic so the silks are useless but these birds found my patch and have scalped my ears. I went and pulled a dozen and they left the kernels alone so I guess let nature take it's course. There's only about twenty thousand acres of field corn around me but I guess it doesn't have worms.


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## iamatt (Aug 28, 2012)

MichaelW said:


> A little over a month ago I posted that my corn was growing slow. Only 4" tall. Well it finally took off and is almost 4 1/2' tall now. Or at least it was. We had a bad storm last night and and this morning all my corn was laying on the ground. I propped it up as best I could but not sure if it will survive or not. Winds last night reported in excess of 40 mph and 4" of rain in about 1 1/2 hours.


Don't grow corn anymore but when we did my pointer would spend all day in there chasing rats. (She actually died from eating a poisoned rat by neighbor). She would knock the corn all over the place but I did notice the corn would magically right itself back up in a short amount of time.


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

My family raised corn in a 4 acre field.It took that much ground to feed the *****,deer,and birds,and have enough for 4 families.We called the 1st 2 rows late corn.It was picked after dark with flashlights by townies.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*Corn Pullin'*

In fear of the rain coming I decided to pull about half of my corn crop. It is a little on the green side. Pretty skinny this year for me. To say the worms are bad is an understatement, they are getting their share. I pulled the P&C and froze it on the cob so this is all G90. I froze a little of it on the cob and cut off ten cups of cream style and froze it as well. I think what's left is a little better than this at least I hope so. I had four 100' rows that didn't have a dozen developed ears on the stalks. Just north of where I live there is about four hundred acres of corn that was flat planted that is a total loss, too much rain. The cucumbers are starting to do their thing and I already processed four quarts of dill pickles. I planted about half of what i usually plant so maybe I can keep up. Those jalapeno's are the first I have had any luck with for three years. I bought four plants at our grocery store and they were tall and skinny on closeout. I didn't figure they would make it but they have done well. No aphids and are medium hot, just right. They are called Mucho Nacho's and I bet they would get really big if you left them on the plants. Usually my jalapeno peppers turn dark black then red I plant.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

That's some dang nice produce for such a tough year. Well Done!


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

Dick Hanks said:


> That's some dang nice produce for such a tough year. Well Done!


Thanks, I really enjoy seeing the stuff you grow in the northern climate. Some places in eastern Texas got upwards of 16 inches of rain yesterday. I haven't really had that much but when it comes it doesn't dry out. I drove to El Campo Wednesday and the soy beans and cotton are still standing in water and don't look too good. Anyway, I got into my other section of corn yesterday afternoon and it looks a little better for some reason, I guess it drains better. Lots of empty stalks. Getting a few cherry tomatoes but the celebrity's and big boys all have the rot. I hope some of the fruits inside the cages don't get it. It seems like the ones the sun hits are blowing the bottoms out. Lack of calcium I guess.


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## jm423 (Sep 18, 2011)

Wado, I don't know how far apart we are as the crow flies (too lazy to look) but would you believe I just got through watering rows I planted peas in so they would have enough moisture to sprout. But i'm in a normally dry spot here near Cuero


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*Dewitt County*

I was raised in Cuero but sometimes rain picks a spot that it avoids. My dad always talked about drought back in the fifties and I think even in the sixties. Usually it's pretty lush in Turkeyville. We came back from Pearsall last Sunday and right before coming into Westhoff we went over I guess Sandy's Creek. It was running like mad, I guess it depends where you are when rain is spotty. I saw a little water in Irish creek coming out of Cuero as well. I was watering here just like you and then bam, eight inches in two days and overcast and foggy. That's when blight got me. I have water standing and the rows are hard as concrete where it's dried out right now. My peas are really doing good just need a little sunshine.


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

My Grandpa lived his whole life at Marysville Texas up on Red River,and his favorite "saying" was,That time in the Bible when it rained 40 days and 40 nights,Marysville got a 1/2''.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

peckerwood said:


> My Grandpa lived his whole life at Marysville Texas up on Red River,and his favorite "saying" was,That time in the Bible when it rained 40 days and 40 nights,Marysville got a 1/2''.


That's a good one! I think I heard my grandpa say one time " Yea we got some rain but out here it's only fifty percent humidity in it. " I still have the prickly pear burner in the garage at the ranch from the dry years.

Got two inches in about an hour last night and a light show to boot.


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## Wado (May 15, 2011)

*That's All Folks!*

I sucked it up and got out in the humidity this morning and stripped the last of it. Ended up with six two cup bags for the freezer of cream style. Takes a lot of ears when they are skinny. I got in the pickle stash and cleaned out old stock and even found a jar from 2013. Every jar still had it's seal but the pickle skins were slimy and yes, I tasted some. The dills if chilled would have passed but the sweet ones were mush. I couldn't force myself to try one, they smelled like cloves and stunk the kitchen up for a couple of hours. I have a few dill pickles left from last year and when I replace them with new ones out they go, we are still eating them now.


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