Annette Henry

While the corn grew well, (planting with a good watering at planting time and spot watering as needed with deep mulch), the pollination sucked.  Very few ears had many kernels I think this was because of the constant wind, so next year I'm planning on planting on a grid rather than in hills.  What corn I did get was very nice, so I'm going to go back to that variety and either plant as soon as the farmers around here start tilling or wait until three weeks after they have planted theirs.  With a short term crop I'm hoping to get around their pollination times.  I'm also happy to report that none of the deer I see from my windows have tried to eat what corn there is!  The fence kept them out - for now.  I think right now they're more concerned about all the activity around my new place. lol  Once they get used to that all bets are off.

Thank you to everyone who offered advice!

Here is the solution to moisture wicking/cold coming up through a cob/adobe floor.  Lay down a layer of glass bottles to use as insulation.  I'm planning on doing this with my cob house and am collecting glass pop bottles to use as I don't drink, and will use volcanic rock for under the RMH.

As for the sacrificial layer for the winter - I agree that scrap plywood, even the thinnest type would be the best.  The point being that you don't have to have something nice, just something that will keep the floor protected.  That means the wood can be of any type.  If you have left over 2x4's or your old neighbor is throwing out some paneling use that.

Good luck with your new place!

Update!

Well, for the first week things went gangbusters good.  The corn doubled in size and there were no problems of drying out and dying except a very few on the outer edges of the patch.

Week two, no need for additional water save for a couple on the outer rows, but there was a little bug damage.  A few holes certainly aren't going to bother me as one of the things I love about my new place is the fact that it is teeming with life!  Bugs, birds, deer, raccoons, etc.

Week three - u-oh.  The bug damage isn't so little anymore.  It seems I have lots of grasshoppers and they found the corn patch.  Well, this is exactly why I was doing the test patch in the first place.  Now I know that I need lots of chickens and guineas to keep the hopper population down to a reasonable amount.   That isn't a problem as I was already working on putting up a greenhouse to house the chickens.  Now I know that I need to buy a lot more than I had originally planned on.  That's not a bad thing, lol.

I like listening to EOTWAWKI books at work. First I have to day that editors are really falling down on the job these days.  Sigh. Well something that pricked my imagination during one of these books - Odd Bill Todd - is just how long does anyone here think that farm animals will survive in a situation where most everyone just up and dies off?

The author is really bad about this as there is no way any pigs still confined would survive 3 months alone.  But what about pastured animals?  Any guesses out there? And how would you go about rounding them up?

Well the corn is planted, and fortunately we're having a cool down the last few days along with some rain.  Lots of clouds so it helps with the transplants.  My new garden is on a bit of a slope, so I planted the patch at the bottom to catch any rain coming down from the top.  I've also planted in bunches of four to five and mulched heavily.  Now this is totally a test patch! as my field crops are going to have it rough next year.  So, I have not improved the soil which is clay.  I'm just testing the water/rain situation and hope to get enough of a crop to add to my spring purchase of new seed.  I won't even have a house down on the farm for another month.  

Next month when I plant my fall crops - carrots, beets, maybe some cabbage, lettuce etc, I'll add in both purchased garden soil (I got a great deal on left overs last year and it's been sitting so I hope any not so good additions have a chance to leach out) and mulch with straw bales that have been sitting for most of a year.  After that harvest, I'm going to add in my old chicken manure and the wood ash from last winter and till all that in.  Hopefully, with all of that I'll have ok garden soil to work with next spring.  

As for my field crops, well the land was a 12 acre pasture that hadn't been improved, not even limed, for years before I bought it.  I'm going to try and put down large tarps to kill off the grass on an acre before I hopefully will get it plowed next spring/summer.  I'll also be planting a test patch of winter wheat.  I've got some of the really old varieties of wheat that are said to be good for clay soils.  We'll see how that works out as well as I don't even know if I'll like using those types in bread.

Lots of experimenting to do!  Can't wait to see what comes of it!

This year I  am using just native soil.  I'll be amending as much as I can in late fall, early winter as I clean out my coop. I'm very wary of importing something I shouldn't with commercial imports.

I'm also going to be buying more seed to use next spring from the same source. I only have about 80 plants currently and as has been said, that's not enough to begin a breeding program. I will have about half an acre next season in corn.  I want to use the red and purple seeds to continue planting with and use the rest to feed my chickens.  

We'll see how things work out.  I will be posting pics. Right now the plants are at about one and a half weeks and I will be planting them this weekend as we have a cold front moving in, bringing the tempd down from high 90s to the 80s.

Oh, and the corn came from the Heirloom Seed Project at the Landis Valley living history museum.  I was only able to get one pack of seeds of their corn so I hope it does well.

That's winter wheat, stupid auto correct,  lol. I will plant early next year, and I'll be planting a lot of different grains to see what grows well here. The corn is the only thing I've been worried about. Not only is this a new homestead, but it's also a new zone, so there's plenty to experiment with.

My corn is a multi color that takes 95 days, which is just the amount of time I have left in the season. I preplanted the corn in trays and will plant out in the garden next week. This also the first thing going in a new garden. We bought 12 acres last year and our new mobile home should be installed next month. Right now I'm driving down once a week to get the garden in, set up the greenhouse,  etc.

As far as the commercial farms go, we're surrounded. Most of their crops are corn and soybeans. This year's crop is mostly going for seed for next year.  With any luck, I'll have seed for a larger field of corn, and I'll also have some winter what growing.

Thank you all so much!  I will definitely check out those links.  We've had almost no rain for the last two months and probably won't get much more for the next month and a half. My only source of water is a pond about 50 yards away, and I'll have to carry the water in buckets. This is the only time I can start the corn though, as we're surrounded by commercial farms and my corn is heirloom Indian corn from a heritage project. I can't let the plants have a chance for cross pollination.