I am sooooo disappointed!

Our corn grew so beautifully, easily 6-7 feet tall, lush, green, tasseled out, looked great! And NEVER PRODUCED AN EAR!!!!!

It was planted in a plot about 15' by 30', and we had a breezy summer, so I can't imagine a problem with pollenization (sp?) unless we planted it too close together? Watered it plenty. Maybe we should have fertilized it more? Manured before planting and when everything was about 6" tall, but that was it.

I don't want to repeat this -- EVER!! Any ideas?

-- Ali (philipandaleta@juno.com), September 02, 2000

Answers

What type of corn was it? If it tasseled out, that says to me it was ready, willing and (maybe) able. How close were the rows to each other, and how close were the individual plants in each row? I have heard that if you have less than 5 rows, your pollenization will not be that good. Also, were your rows north/south, or east/west - and what direction were the prevailing winds? Can't quite figure anything else. Judi in CT

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), September 02, 2000.

Any chance the seed could have been broom corn or something similar? All I can come up with is that the seeds were from a variety that don't produce ears.

Even if for some strange reason it didn't pollinate really well, I would think some of the stalks would have borne ears. And since they got tall and lush I can't think it would be from lack of nutrients either.

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), September 02, 2000.

Hi! Sorry Ali,I don't have an answer-rather a similar problem.

Our corn also grew well.In fact,the best I've ever had it grow! It tasseled out nicely followed by no silks!It took over 2 weeks before any silks started to show up.By then ,the tassels looked rather poor.Now all I've got are a few small ears.Everything was planted properly.The only thing sort of unusual were the orchard mason bees all over my tassels,but perhaps I just never noticed them before.

Hope you get an answer!

God bless,~~~Tracy~~~

-- Tracy Jo Neff (tntneff@ifriendly.com), September 02, 2000.

It almost sounds like the plants produced pollen before the ears were ready for it. This hot, dry weather does strange things.

Corn is a hard plant on soil. A rule of thumb is to only grow it in the same place one out of three years. It needs fertilization, particularly nitrogen, since it is a form of grass.

-- Ken S. in TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 03, 2000.