The oyster mushroom gets its name from its cap which, some say, resembles an oyster. The stem of the oyster mushrooms is perhaps more distinct; it unfurls something like one of those old-time paper lady's fans. The oyster mushroom has...

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Corn Growing Problems: Troubleshooting

Corn is the only member of the grass family that we grow and eat as a vegetable. To come to harvest quickly corn requires warm temperatures, rich soil, and even, regular watering. Corn is wind-pollinated so planting in blocks or multiple rows to ensure pollination is important.

Here is a troubleshooting list of possible corn growing problems with control and cure suggestions: (For corn growing details see How to Grow Sweet Corn and read to the bottom of this post for corn growing success tips.)

Corn Problems and Solutions:

Corn does not emerge. Soil may be cold or damp. Plant later when the soil and temperatures are warmer; make sure soil is well-draining by adding aged compost and organic matter to soil.

Insides of seed and young plants are eaten. Corn wireworm or the seed corn maggot is eating the seed. The corn wireworm is the larvae of the click beetle; the click beetle is reddish brown or black to ¾ inches long. Wireworms are brown or yellow and leathery to 1½ inches long. The seed corn maggot is a yellowish-white legless maggot, the larvae of a fly. The maggot feeds on the inside of sprouting seed. Cultivate the planting bed in fall to expose larvae to birds. Spade the corn bed and let it lie fallow every third season. To trap: use pieces of potato on a spike setting them 2 to 4 inches into the soil; check the traps twice a week. Pick and destroy wireworms and maggots from the potato.

Seedlings are cut off near the soil surface. Cutworms are gray or brown grubs that hide in the soil by day and feed at night. Handpick grubs from the soil at the base of plants. Remove weeds and keep the garden free of plant debris. Place a 3-inch cardboard collars around the stems of seedlings and push the collars 1 inch into the soil.

Seedlings are uprooted. Crows and birds will pull up seedlings to feed on seed. Cover seedlings with bird block or row covers until they are established.

Continue reading "Corn Growing Problems: Troubleshooting" »

Corn Varieties: Best Bets and Easy-to-Grow

There is no substitute for the flavor of corn just picked from the garden.

Flavor and adaptability to your garden's climate are the major considerations when choosing a corn variety. There are three types of fresh-eating sweet corn grouped by flavor: standard corn, sugary enhanced corn, and supersweet corn (adaptability to your garden's climate--the soil and air temperature--is actually linked to the flavor type). Here's how these corn types differ:

• Standard corn is the "old-fashioned" corn your grandfather grew; the corn with tasty corn flavor. These varieties--many are heirlooms and open-pollinated--have been around for years and years. Standard corn is plantable in cool soil, as cool as 55°F. This corn is best rushed to the kitchen and eaten within an hour of harvest.

• Sugary enhanced corn are hybrid varieties that keep their sweet flavor up to 3 days after harvest. Sugary enhanced hybrids give growers a 3-day window for harvest. (Near harvest time it is important to monitor standard corn each day to make sure you pick at the peak of its sweet flavor.) Sugary enhanced cultivars don't require daily monitoring; pick sugary enhanced corn anytime within the 3 day peak flavor period. This type of corn demands soil temperatures about 10° warmer than standard corn.

• Supersweet corn are also hybrid varieties--the sweetest flavored of all corn. Supersweet corn varieties are sweeter than sugary enhanced varieties. Supersweets also have an enhanced harvest window of 2 to 3 days. One note, supersweet corn can be demanding: it requires soil no less than 65°F at planting time; it grows best when the soil is pre-warmed (cover beds with black plastic to warm the soil); and it is less vigorous than standard or sugary enhanced corn.

In addition to the best bets of these three types, also listed here are recommendations for popping, baby corn, and ornamental corn. Keep reading to the bottom of this post and I will give you my tips for sure-fired corn growing success. (Also read How To Sweet Grow Corn.)

Standard corn:

• Butter and Sugar. 73 days. Bicolor white and yellow kernels, good flavor; 7 to 8 inch ears. Resists bacterial wilt and southern corn leaf blight.

• Golden Cross Bantam. 85 days. Large yellow kernels. Uniform ears 7½ to 8 inches long with 10 to 14 rows per ear. Sturdy stalk to 6 feet; very prolific. Resists bacterial wilt.

Continue reading "Corn Varieties: Best Bets and Easy-to-Grow" »

How to Grow Sweet Corn

Corn is a warm-season annual that is best planted after the soil temperature reaches 60°F, usually two or three weeks after the last frost in spring. Corn planted in cold, wet soil is unlikely to germinate. Corn grows best in air temperatures from 60° to 95°F. Corn can take from 60 to 100 days to reach harvest depending upon variety and the amount of heat during the growing season.

How to prepare and cook corn: click here.

All about baby corn: click here.

Description. Corn is a tender annual and a member of the grass family that can grow from 4 to12 feet tall. One to two ears of corn form on the side of each tall, green, grass-like stalk. Flowering tassels form at the top of each stalk; pollen falls from the tassels onto silky threads growing from each ear below. Each silk is connected to an unfertilized kernel. Each ear of corn forms as many kernels as the number of silks that were pollinated. (Tassels are the male flowers of the corn plant. Kernels and ears are the female flowers.) Kernels of sweet corn can be yellow, white, black, red, or a combination of colors. A large corn variety may form one or two harvestable ears on each stalk. A dwarf variety may form two or three harvestable ears per stalk. When pollination does not occur the stalk will produce only a cob.

Yield. Plant 12 to 20 corn plant per household member.

Site. Plant corn in full sun. Corn grows best in loose, well-worked, well-drained soil with a pH of 5.8 to 6.8. Add aged compost to the planting area before planting. Add aged compost to the planting area the autumn before planting.

Continue reading "How to Grow Sweet Corn" »

Baby Corn

But fresh-picked baby corn--not the baby corn out of a can swimming in a pan at the downtown salad bar--comes with a short window of opportunity; it must be had in mid-summer during just the one or two days after the silks of the corn cob emerge from the husk, called "silking". After that, baby corn is on its way to becoming an adult.

You, no doubt, know baby corn when you see it. It's the finger-length corn that most often shows up in Thai and Chinese dishes. It looks like miniature corn on the cob. But baby corn does not come from dollhouse-sized corn plants; baby corn is harvested from standard varieties of sweet and field corn just after silking

Picked fresh baby corn is sweet, juicy and crunchy. Wait until the third or fourth day after the silks emerge from the ears and baby corn begins to grow starchy and hard and you then must wait another 20 to 50 days for pollinated ear to mature to full size and regain their sweet natural corn flavor and tenderness.

While canned baby corn is dull flavored--after all, baby corn for canning is most often grown in Asia, where the required hand picking is less costly, and must travel a distance to reach you, fresh-picked baby corn even stir fried will have full sweet corn flavor, the same flavor you catch when you rush fresh-picked full-size corn to the table minutes after harvest.

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Summer Garden Succotash

Look around and you will find a dozen or so ways to make “authentic” succotash.

The bottom line on succotash is that this cooked dish always includes lima beans and corn kernels—unless it doesn’t. You see, sometimes “real” succotash doesn’t include lima beans but green shell beans instead (just ask Fannie Farmer).

So, at least succotash always includes corn. (Yes, for real!) You see, succotash just has to include corn because the word succotash comes from the Naragansett Indian (up New England way) word msickquatash which means “boiled whole kernels of corn.”

That settled, the absolute basics on succotash is that fresh corn kernels and lima beans or some other shell beans are cooked separately in boiling water until tender and then the two are mixed together with a little butter (or salt pork, particularly in The South) and cooked until ready.

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Corn-Tomato Casserole

Corn and tomatoes together are just about as natural a combination as Nature could deliver up. That's why they come to harvest at the same time.

Sliced tomatoes are a perfect replacement for a green salad when corn on the cob is on the menu. A baked tomato stuffed with succotash is another great corn-tomato combination.

Here is a corn-tomato casserole that is hearty and easy to prepare. The four major ingredients of this casserole--corn, tomato, green pepper, and onion--can be picked right out of the garden or easily picked up at the farm market this week.

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Sautéed Corn

Sautéing will keep the crispness and flavor of fresh vegetables intact. Sautéing is a technique very similar to Chinese stir-frying.

Fresh vegetables that lend themselves to sautéing include mushrooms, thinly slice carrots, zucchini, onions, green peppers, and corn kernels.

Here's a tasty way to sauté corn:

Continue reading "Sautéed Corn" »

Sweet Corn

Corn Stalks

Here are the directions for serving sweet corn on the cob: First, place a large pot of water on to boil. Then rush to the garden plot and select the perfect ears—creamy and solid with little pearl kernels at the tips. Rush back to the kitchen and strip off the husks and rush the corn into the kettle. Let the corn boil six minutes then heap it on the platter, with a mound of butter and a big salt shaker nearby. Abandon conversation until everyone is full.

The best way to enjoy corn on the cob is to serve it within 20 minutes of picking. This is very doable if you are growing your own corn. It is also quite doable if you befriend a farmer and attend a “corn party” where fresh picked corn is served at picking time.

But if you do not grow corn or live close by a corn farm, then choose corn that has been picked in the last day or two. When you buy corn at the farm market, serve it the same day, but certainly not more than a day later.

Summer and early autumn is the season for fresh corn with August and September being the peak of the season in the Northern Hemisphere.

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Corn

How do you like your corn?

That’s what might be called an All-Americas' question.

Corn has been the most important cultivated crop in the Americas for nearly 6,000 years. It was first planted as a crop in Central America sometime around 3500 B.C. and became the basic food for the Incas, Mayas, Aztecs and native North Americans.

In the United States of America today, there are somewhere around 200 varieties of corn in cultivation.

How do you like your corn? The answer probably says a lot about where you are from.

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