Growing corn the old way

peternap · December 09, 2007, 09:03:11 AM

This seemed a perfect topic for this section.
I am planning my game plots for next spring. I love corn in the plots because everything eats it...even the bears!

I hate spending money too. For the last few years, I've been acclimatizing bag corn from Tractor supply. I started with their bags of feed corn and soaked it in water, then planted it. I treated it like any other corn and at the end of the season, what was there was hearty corn so I saved it as seed. Eventually, even the most hybred seed will go back to momma.

Just a word of caution. This will only work if your far enough away from other corn crops to avoid cross breeding.

I started looking into old growing methods for corn this year to try to avoid using fertiziler. I knew the Indians hadn't put a fish into the hole because fish was far too valuable to waste. Also one fish wouldn't provide enough nitrogen.

What I found was as usual, the Indians were far more sophisticated than we think. They inter planted nitrogen fixing crops in the same hills as the corn and practiced good crop rotation. I have inter planted for years to eliminate certain pests, but not to add nitrogen to a sister crop.

I'll call Va Tech next week and see if we can crunch some numbers. Yields will be lower but so will costs.

glenn kangiser · December 09, 2007, 11:25:41 AM

Something like pole beans - I've heard of planting beans with corn then they climb the corn.

I need corn that doesn't require water.

Wonder if that trick works with frankencorn. I'm afraid the genetic engineers are going to permanently destroy a lot of our food crop. I've already had a problem digesting frankencorn when Frito Lay got a batch of it accidently-- took three days to digest.

December 09, 2007, 12:58:39 PM

Look into some of the Southwestern Indian Corn Glenn.
The pure strains are very regional specific and there are was corn growm under arid conditions.

My guess is that the Frankencorn will revert back to it's native gene after several generations. The real problem with the stuff is it cross pollinates with nearby corn crops and destroys the value of that corn.

It's killing the organic farmers. I'm really surprised we haven't seen a rash of suspicious cornfield fires.

benevolance · December 10, 2007, 01:27:17 AM

careful now mentioning an unfortunate fire like that might be seen as inciting an act of terrorism $:-\$

what is frankencorn?

And I worry that the food we eat will be modified so much that it will be impossible to get natural seeds and unaltered food... I am weary because I suspect that our food will make us have heartburn and insomnia... which will make us buy drugs to cure the ailments our food is genetically designed to cause... My wife thinks I have read too many books and I am getting paranoid.

I seem to be the only one left that wonders why grandpa and his friends never got cancer and worked without arthritis or diabetes well into their 70's..I think it is mainly from the food.

MountainDon · December 10, 2007, 01:30:27 AM

Quote from: benevolance on December 10, 2007, 01:27:17 AM
what is frankencorn?

Genetically Modified/Engineered Corn

frankenfood = GM/E food

December 10, 2007, 06:05:01 AM

Is Three Sisters what you are looking for?

http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html

peternap · December 10, 2007, 06:31:32 AM

Yep....That's it Daddymmem Thanks, I hadn't read about the squash.

My Deer, Bear and turkey thank you also

In case your wondering, my deer feeding sites get expensive. The bears get in them and eat all the food (It's illegal to feed bears so when they get in the deer feeders, I have to post NO BEARS signs)

Anyway, I go through hundreds of pounds in bagged food. It's also illegal to feed deer after September but food plots are OK.

That's what's left of a 50 pound bag of corn he's flopped on:

benevolance · December 10, 2007, 11:13:13 AM

just a little fella... you should go ask him to play

tanya · December 10, 2007, 12:13:54 PM

hmmmm... I wonder if it is feeding deer if you jsut have hay inthe shed I don't like the deer have absolutely no intention of feeding them at all but they do get in that shed and eat. man that is all I need the cops coming up to hassle me for feeding the deer. I better build some shed walls. I am going to have a chat with my landlady too about this no hunting rule.

December 10, 2007, 02:24:09 PM

i hate that people hunt on land without asking permission first...I do not care if there are no signs up saying no hunting... we used to post them and they would tear them down or shoot them up and go about hunting..

if you do not own land or receive permission to enter land there should be no hunting... It is tresspassing in my book and against the law to hunt on land you do not own without permission in writing...

we have almost no rights as landowners... we should not have to endure hunters unless we want them there.

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 10, 2007, 02:29:03 PM

Painted mountain has a short growing season and produces fairly big yields without watering... FWIW

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 10, 2007, 02:52:26 PM

I should mention, too, that I used the fish heads, bones and tails from some fish we'd just caught and cleaned, along with companion planting pole beans with the corn... the corn was really healthy and didn't seem to have any pest problems, though I can't say the same for the beans which were eaten by the Asian beetles.

Daddymem · December 11, 2007, 06:18:52 AM

When I worked at the Cranberry Experiment Station we worked on a fish based fertilizer (using the spoils from fish plants) and it had some really good success. My guess on the natives around here is they used the alewife that schools up the rivers like salmon do.

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 11, 2007, 08:28:32 PM

I used some fish-based organic fertilizer when we were in Oklahoma, and I thought it worked pretty well... of course it was mixed with compost and year-old chicken manure and stuff... that's why I figured we should use the by-products from our fishing trips in the garden. Even when I cook fish, I toss the bones in the compost pile.

December 12, 2007, 09:13:43 PM

I talked to the corn guru at Va Tech today and he told me they had done several test plots fot Jamestown last summer. He said they had very good results.

These are the varieties they planted:
Our best results in our low-input field demo from last summer were with:

Burkes Garden White- we got this from USDA and they would only send up 100 seeds, but it did really well.

Reid Yellow Dent

Douthets Yellow

Douthets White – both these are really tall with high ear placement, but stood well for us.

Krug Yellow Dent -

glenn kangiser · December 12, 2007, 10:25:07 PM

We had 3 types of sweet corn this last garden season, I guess I did it the old way -- I planted it with the old corn planter I got at the antique store. It was kind of fun. I planted it in the new horse manure compost beds and this is the first year we had a decent corn crop.

benevolance · December 12, 2007, 10:40:13 PM

show us what the antique corn planter looks like man.... neat stuff

How are you guys collecting the seeds off the corn to avoid frankencorn?

glenn kangiser · December 12, 2007, 11:22:17 PM

One corn planter coming up --

Remember the guy on E-bay who took the picture of his stuff and didn't realize that his naked reflection showed in the picture. Boy, am I glad I was dressed.

...anyway, you hold it vertical - shove the point in the ground and rock it back. A couple seeds fall through to the bottom and are deposited under the soil...if it doesn't get plugged up with dirt.

benevolance · December 13, 2007, 12:15:21 AM

Very cool

I will try to get me one of those...

And I try to forget seeing naked guys Glenn... Why you remember seeing him is a interesting question

How do you harvest seeds from corn for next year?

benevolance · December 13, 2007, 12:23:53 AM

i wonder if anyone is still making the old timey hand planters? I saw one on ebay for like 25 bucks

December 13, 2007, 12:24:39 AM

Just leave a few to dry on the stalk. They will make a nice cob full of next years seed.

We have no cornfields nearby so as long as we have uncontaminated seed we shouldn't get frankencorn... Unfortunately that stuff has a way of spreading to everything everywhere.

glenn kangiser · December 13, 2007, 12:27:20 AM

I used to have one like this but you need a big garden to be worth it.

http://www.coleplanter.com/handseeder.htm

benevolance · December 13, 2007, 12:31:19 AM

so take a whole ear of corn and let all the kernals dry on the stalk and next spring remove the kernals and plant in the ground? a few kernals per hole?

glenn kangiser · December 13, 2007, 12:39:06 AM

Let it dry on the stalk but take it in to keep it dry in the fall or it will start growing right on the cob. Had one in the compost pile do that this year.

Then when the ground is warm enough - yes - a few kernals per hole.

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 13, 2007, 07:29:55 AM

My grandpa used to have a corn planter just like that. I still remember him using it... it probably ended up getting sold when Grandma sold the farm. Too bad. We always plant corn by hand. My younger daughter likes helping with corn better than anything else, maybe because it is easier for her to handle. I got really tickled at her last spring as she was planting... she started sing-songing this little thing she made up that went something like, "One for the birds, one for the chipmunks, and one for Evannie." It was so strange because I never said anything like that to her, but my grandpa used to say something along those lines when I was a kid... one for the crows, one for the gophers, and one for us.