Three Sisters Year 4

What kind of corn is in those pics?

Thom,
Wish mother nature could spare us some rain here. We only have one inch of rain since August 1st.

Some people have garden sitters to harvest cucumber, zucchini, okra etc while they are away to keep the plants productive. But if only the sitters know the difference between a summer squash and a winter squash! Maybe you can ask farmer friends for help should this happen again.

Five ears on a single stalk is interesting. Have you checked if they all have kernels? I got one plant with multiple ears, even on a single shank but that was due to failed pollination. The corn kept trying to channel the energy somewhere.

Christopher,
Maybe the short season mountain Morado will suit your area. I experimented with a late planting on August 25th and they are tasseling and silking now in just 35 days. I might get some sweet corns in three weeks but I mostly grow them to build up soil biomass.

Thom Bri wrote:What kind of corn is in those pics?

If that was aimed at me, it’s a broad grex field corns, mostly weighted toward short season varieties but also some other stuff when I wanted the pollen.

May Lotito wrote:Thom,
Five ears on a single stalk is interesting. Have you checked if they all have kernels? I got one plant with multiple ears, even on a single shank but that was due to failed pollination. The corn kept trying to channel the energy somewhere.
.

Yes, all 5 had grains. The ears were all small, similar to Glass Gem, and last few were tiny. But all pollinated.

This corn. It was supposed to be blue, and about half were, but the other half were multi-colored.
https://www.rareseeds.com/corn-mini-blue-popcorn

Good morning.  I was wondering, with all your experience of growing squash, whether you would risk eating the mysterious warty yellow squash I've been given?  This is from a neighbouring gardener who muddled up their squash & gourd seedlings, and doesn't know the variety themself ..

Picture over here: https://permies.com/t/40/46560/Maxima-Moschata-Pepo

Many thanks.

ETA: Apparently the fruit from plants infected with squash mosaic virus are warty & taste foul, but aren't harmful.

Ac Baker wrote:Good morning.  I was wondering, with all your experience of growing squash, whether you would risk eating the mysterious warty yellow squash I've been given?  This is from a neighbouring gardener who muddled up their squash & gourd seedlings, and doesn't know the variety themself ..

Picture over here: https://permies.com/t/40/46560/Maxima-Moschata-Pepo

Many thanks.

ETA: Apparently the fruit from plants infected with squash mosaic virus are warty & taste foul, but aren't harmful.

I would slice it and touch my tongue to the raw flesh. If it's bitter you will know instantly. If not bitter, I'd eat it.

Forecast is for a hard frost tonight, first of 2026. So I went to the garden to harvest everything left over I could see. It was cold and very windy with heavy clouds. Saw a rainbow in the far distance.
Lots of green beans and not much else. No tomatoes, which was a big disappointment. This year most veggies did really poorly. Several factors. May was super dry so everything got a slow start. Then we had 2 months of heavy smoke from the forest fires, so nothing got much sunlight. Late summer and fall have been better, but it's all catch-up. I picked a few peppers since none of them will survive tonight.
We ate green beans tonight, and I will spend several hours tonight shelling the older beans. Lots of those.
The garden at home got sheets and plastic over the tomatoes.

The link has a pic showing how smokey it was in July.

https://stateclimatologist.isws.illinois.edu/2026/08/05/warm-and-smoky-july/

Pic showing how much cross pollination to expect. The neighbors field is about 30 feet from my corn, where I picked these ears. Every ear except one has some obvious colored seeds.
Since his field is much larger than my garden, there is probably much more crossing into my plot, though not so visible.
By the way I didn't raid his field. This was from a corner that got knocked down during harvest by the combine, so would have gone to waste. I was gleaning from downed stalks.
The 3 ears on the right are from my corn. Two are pretty average, smaller ears. The yellow one on the farthest right appears to be a cross of my corn and the hybrid corn, possible last year or maybe some earlier year.

A few pics. Not much remaining in the garden. Tobacco going to seed, as are the zinnias and marigolds. Still getting a few late green beans and tomatoes, what few survive a few nights of frost. Weather has been amazing. Warm and sunny and dry.

Tobacco flowering. Some is going to seed. It's late this year. Normally it has all gone to seed by now and the plants frost-killed.
Beans like climbing it.

The radishes I planted in a vain attempt to fool the squash bugs did rather well. I just scattered handfuls of some really old seeds around and hoped they might grow. They did.