No Kandi for Joeh20

[joeh20]

I think I lost my Kandi sweet corn crop this year.It was only a 110 plants. 1st year I tried it, I set it out back in early May. I kept it wet through the driest 2 months of my entire life. And as it went into tassel It got over a 100F for part of 2 weeks. The ears got kinda big but I checked a few Friday and they were only about 25% pollinated. I could control the water but I guess i can't air conditioned it. The silks were brown and i thought it might have been ready. I'm lucky I left and went to the beach this week, so i don't have to look at great green stalks with big fat empty cobs on them.  I hit pollination on the hottest 2 weeks ever in my town. I have some peaches and cream and some ambrosia coming in soon so we will have to try Kandi next year. You win some you lose some.

[crazyhorse]

Mr Joe, I'm sorry about that .
Don't give up, next year could be a banner year.

[tuttimato]

That's bad Joe but it proves the wisdom of your succession planting.  You could have lost it all if not for that.  Kandy Korn has been a favorite ever since it came out so you'll not have any trouble finding seeds to try again next year.  It makes such a big tall stalk that maybe planting earlier is the answer.  I got a few good ears off my Bodacious but most were half sized nubs.  It all tasted great anyway.

[Oldiron]

The local weather guesser says that the weather is transitioning from a la Nina to an el Nino. Transition years can be rough for weather patterns. Where I'm at the last few years have been horribly hot and dry. We have had more rain this year so far than we had all last year and the temperature has been cooler(low 90's instead of low 100's).

Hang on, write this year off and if we get a strong el Nino be ready for a lot of rain next year. 

[joeh20]

Thanks for the encouragement all, I have lots of seed left. I diversify, I had some early extra sweet and P&C, out before the Kandi. We are cooking the last of the Peaches & Cream tonight at the beach, Yes i lugged 36 ears 450 miles so I would have my own corn to eat, i also took 3 quarts of green beans and a six pack cooler full of tomatoes and a bag of cukes picked at 4 AM saturday morning. I have two more plots of corn to get me by till next April. I've got 2 1/2 inches of rain at home since i left, My next corn will be 7 feet tall by sunday when we get back.

[joeh20]

Well I got in the Kandi patch today and cleaned it out. We had 109 plants in it. About 80 had ears on them, most with 2 on each, no second ears made it at all. We picked through it all and got about 60 ears out of it, most were 50% pollinated and the kernals were huge. I think they should have been picked last week. But they had a lot of milk in them. It hasn't been that hot with all the rain last 10 days, so i think it kept OK on the stalk. I planted about a 160 seeds had 60% come up and had 60% of that make something, we actually got 3 dozen real ears out of the 14 dozen seeds planted. I had 2 fertilizings on it and weeding and watering with no rain at all on this crop and made $12 dollars worth of mediocre sweet corn. You got to love to garden to go through a year like this. As I said I this was my second crop, my third had tasseled and put on ears while I was gone to  the beach, it looks like about 90% have ears, i have about 150 plants in this crop. It started out dry, but has had 6 inches of rain while silking and no heat over 92F. And you can't tell my 4th crop of sweet corn from the weeds in it. It might be dry enough to cultivateit today and sidedress it.  And Okra started getting picked today, Should have started last week, but dad didn't get into the wet dirt and check. I got a gallon out this AM.