posted 10 years ago
To start with, I tried to get a pure stand of dutch clover to prevent weeds. This worked so-so, though as I will keep the area mowed after harvest many of the annual weeds should die. In spite of being tilled twice before seeding there is a fair amount of grass in there, and that will NOT die from being mowed every week.
My plan was to plant large vegetables and to let the clover nourish the plants. This worked fairly well with the sweet corn this year, though we did start out with fertilization as the clover has not had a chance to enrich the soil. At any rate the corn looks strong and healthy, and I expect to harvest it next week.
One problem was that germination was very poor. When the seeds arrived the packages said "86% germination" which I think is pretty darned poor for corn seeds! And, germination in the garden was very poor, so I reseeded when it was a tad warmer, which gave me better germination but it was still poor. I dug up a seed from time to time and most of them had sent down roots but no tops. I contacted the seed company to complain, saying that their competitors sweet corn had been planted earlier but was doing well, and they told me that a cold snap at the wrong time will do that. They also sent me a full refund, so, oh well!
At any rate we have about 120 stalks of corn in my experimental plot, they all look healthy, and most have one generous sized ear of corn forming. A couple of the stalks have a second ear but those do not look like they will properly fill out. Again I expect to pick them next week.
Today I planted more corn, with a slightly different twist. Because there WAS grass in the last plot (and grass grows 5 feet tall here, which would shade the vegetables), I have set out fistful of seeds, 5 feet apart, on a grid pattern. That way I can mow between the clumps of sweet corn. I want 5 corn stalks per clump: when I did a germination test on the corn seeds I only got a 50% germination rate and so I put 10 seeds in each hole and I put one inch of soil over the seeds. If I get more than 5 corn plants in each hole I will thin it.
It will be very interesting to see if the ears fill out as well as the corn that was spaced more evenly. At any rate I can mow between this corn, which should prevent this year's oomplaints that I had not mown my lawn! Beccause, until the corn got tall enough, it did NOT look like I had mown my lawn!