Corn is an annual. You can leave the stalks if you wish, but that's will they will be next year, albeit ones laying on the ground and decomposing. They won't grow ears in 2011.

Mike

What mike said--I agree

We pull ours and lay them in one corner of the garden and throw dirt over them and let them decompose. you can also chop them up and throw them in the compost.

As for the aphids a good spray with the hose usually dispatches them.

I pull up my corn, I lost 80% of them this year right when they were starting to produce because I got sick and could'nt water them when it was 100 degrees. On the ants and aphids.....they were getting into the corn also :( they destroyed my black eyed peas, I tried to keep them sprayed but they would be right back on the pea blossoms when I got home from work. They sucked all the moisture out and they would'nt grow. The %%%@@@ ants too.

Thank you, all, for your confirmations. I've discovered many more aphids, so with a heavy heart I'm going to wait and see how much longer these plants last - and not with high hopes.. It really sucks, and I'm sure you all have been there. I'll just keep an eye and not let it get worse than it already is. I've had the same problem with my beets, but with those I was able to simply snip off the greens...

Now, to find more promising plants to replace them with... Does anyone know of fall/winter plants that could stand up well against aphids while I continue to fight the war with the ants?

...Is it all right that I keep asking questions in the same thread, or should I re-locate it to another forum with a new thread?

I park the chipper/shredder at the end of each row and take a machete to the base of each plant soon after harvest. The plants are hauled to the shredder and run through it shooting the shredded material right back down the row the plants just came from. This method works well if your back is getting tired from too much composting, at least in my climate.

You might have better luck posting specific questions individually if they are not too closely related to the topic of this thread. Be sure and check the listng of all the forums too, I.E. questions on tomatoes can certainly be posted on the Tomato forum also.

My cure for aphids is minty mouthwash and lemon scented dish soap in a hose end sprayer that mixes it with water. The kind of sprayer that is meant for water soluable fertilizer.

I put about 1/2 cup of mouthwash in the bottle and add about 1 teaspoon of soap, fill the bottle with water, and then spray in early evening or early morning.

I also use this in a hand held spray bottle. Then I use a tablespoon of mouthwash and 2 drops of soap and fill the pint sprayer with cold water.

CAUTION--you really have to watch the amount of dishsoap you use--too much can burn the leaves and only spray in morning or evening.

I once had my crabapple tree just covered with aphids and ants farming them. I sprated this one evening and when I checked the next day they were all gone. I sprayed again anyway and they never came back.

I find with all bug infestations if you treat them at the beginning, you don't have as much to deal with.

Thank you for that recipe! I'll definitely have to try it out.