Growing Corn (Part II) and a Morning Harvest

Yes, I have to take pictures. They will come!

But, I wanted to share what I read up on corn. (This is the first time I've ever grown corn, so I find this info fascinating!) The flowers on the tops of the corn plants have the pollen that needs to fertilize the corn so that the corn develops the yummy juicy kernels on the ears. Well, for the fertilization to occur, the pollen needs to fall onto the tassels.

And to tell when the corn is ready to be picked, you look at the color of the tassels...the turn from whitish to reddish to dark red/brown. Most of my corn tassels are at the reddish stage. And I did kinda cheat...I cut some of the flowers and hand-pollinated all the corn tassels I could find. (hey, I want to make sure I get SOME corn out of this :-) ).

Also, normally you drop some mineral oil on the tassels to prevent worms from getting into the corn and eating it, but I haven't done that. I'm hoping they leave most of my corn alone. Since we don't eat too much corn, I may not grow this again, but it was truely interesting to see, since I've never saw corn grow before. Instead of corn next year, maybe pumpkin, winter squash or potatoes...

This morning, I decided to make my garden rounds since I haven't done that in over 24 hours. I was able to harvest quite a few things...first was 3 of the 4 apples growing on our small 4-in-1 apple tree. this apple is the early summer apple. I probably could have picked them a few weeks earlier, but I wanted them to become really red all around. The largest 3 were at that stage, so I picked them. I still have to taste them, probably tonight.

I also harvested 2 zucchini, my first 2 cucumbers (yum!) and it doesn't seem like there are any other cucumbers anywhere near close to picking, so I have to savor these. And I also picked some lettuce for our sandwiches for lunch.

Another exciting thing I saw this morning were small globes of charantais melon starting to develop! this is another first for me...kinda reminds me of the watermelons I grew 2 summers ago. I hope I get some to eat. I'd like to see what all the hype is about on these melons...