Long beautiful hair...

Nope not going to break into song....I am going to talk about Corn....and all it's hairy parts.

Buddy dog here is a 4 year old Pure breed Chocolate lab. He was kind enough to sit for me so I could take a picture to show the height of the corn compaired to him.

Next to him the corn is just begining to show signs of progress other than getting tall. The top tassle like part that is actually very important to pollination is just starting to grow out from the middle of the leaves. Untill this point all we have been seeing is new leaves growing and growing and growing....and the corn getting quite tall. Infact it is now over 5ft tall....actually it's over 5'5" tall....as I am 5'4" and it is taller than me.

Next in the stage of growth is where we begin to see something between the stalk and leaves but not at the top but part way down...almost the middle for some.

Just below this new development you can see a very destinctive bulge in the stalk....on the opposite side of the new growth. Almost kinda looks like the Corn stalk is pregnant.

The kids are now standing next to the very tall corn looking at the progress and seeing that the top tassle parts are now fully uncovered and even spread apart. Pollinisation of the corn has begun. It won't be a whole lot longer before we will get to enjoy the ears.

And now to the title of the post....Hair has begun to show it's self as well as the husks of the ear. Long and beautiful a sure sign that it's almost time. As of now we have 6 ears that are in the process of developing. So far only one per stalk. Hopeing for the rest to start and or one of the stalks produce more than one.

Here you can see the beautiful hair along with the stalk and the bulge below.

Although this picture is a double it allows me to show some of the things that we have learned this year. Although clearly the corn is doing very well you can see that the stalks to the left in the picture are much shorter than those to the right. The ones on the right get more unfiltered sun through out the day. The others do get sun all day but part of the day it does get filtered thru the greenhouse. So not quite direct sunlight. And also due simply by location of the house and this garden the ones to the left....expecially the ones not in the picture are the first to loose the afternoon sun to the shade of the house. Next year we are going to plant our corn in another spot. One that will get more sun unfiltered in anyway and this way all the corn will loose the afternoon sun basically the same time.

So far (knocking on wood) we have been lucky in that we have not had any major pest issues. Whether it is due to the companion planting of Garlic Chives in with the corn or pure beginers luck I have no idea.

Another thing that I have learned with this is the spacing requirements on the seed packets are indeed there for a reason. Although my corn is doing well they do seem to be a little crowded...at least at the top. When the harvest is done and I till the garden I will see for sure with the root system. As long as pollination still happends and the roots don't seem to be crowding then I will know better how to plant next year.