Corn!

I've never grown corn before, and only did it on a whim this year when I found I had so much space in my community garden plot that I couldn't imagine what I would do with all the food it was likely to produce. (I know, I know, I have a limited imagination - the bounty of 10 tomato plants is simply beyond my ken!) Anyway, I wasn't expecting much, especially because I only had room for 2 rows and you are supposed to plant at least 4 to get good pollination rates. (For anyone curious about corn pollination - And hey, who isn't? Corn is a neat plant! - there is a good article from Purdue University called "Sex in the Cornfield: How It's Done".)

Last Sunday N and I drove over to the community garden and picked our first batch of corn, and found pretty mixed results. The pollination seems to have gone well, but 4 of the 7 ears we picked had earworms of earworm damage, and the ears were smaller than I generally buy at the store. But then again, one of them was just perfect. Naturally I'm already thinking about where to plant more next year.

Corn earworm damage on one of my ears.