Those are some healthy looking plants.Are those tall cement raised beds?
Hard to tell from the picture.

In the future, get some cattle panel and anchor it horizontally 3-4 feet up from the bottom of the bed. The corn with grow thru the grid and prevent the corn from falling over.

You're right. Fresh corn is worth every bit of effort.

I'm in the middle of a whole property landscape project. I started with a sloped lot The concrete wall you see is part of the 400ft+ retaining walls needed to get things right.

The soil mix I use has to be in beds that are exactly flat or they erode with the first rain.

The corn is 10 plants in a 4.5 x4.5ft square. Close spacing, but good for pollination. Should be ready mid July.

My son saw a coon across the street late yesterday. I live in town! If that coon gets my corn it's gonna be war.

It may not be the soil but insects damaging the roots of the corn. For several years I grew corn with very little problem and then I got an infestation of root borers and couldn't keep the corn standing upright. Every little storm that came through blew it down. Check with your extension agent to see if your area has such an insect pest and what to do about it. He should be able to tell you how to check the plants roots for damage and evidence of the critter.

Good luck. Sweet corn is one of the garden's greatest treats!

My favorite garden word

The tilth is my garden is so good that after 20 + inches of rain in 2 weeks I didn't have standing puddles.. :-)

And none of my plants showed excess water stress

Is that a concrete wall you put there or did the sand/clay mix turn to concrete, just kidding.

I'd say they're tilthed a little south-west.

I'd say ...." -billme ,Jun 20, 06 at2:51

Anyone who can be witty at that hour has my respect.
BTW, from your view, would that be early in the AM or late at night?

It's Ok to be a little tilthed on Sat. night, if you can be straight up come Monday morning.

You know the soft soil may have saved the plants. I believe that in high winds, in my concrete clay soil, the corn might have snapped off at the base instead of tipping over...

just thinking...

My friend the garden pessimist says the only reason my garden corn looks good right now is because its early.

Here is a spot in my yard that hasn't been amended yet. It's been bare for two years and even weeds won't grow on it. I have white and yellow clay too. The clay here is contaminated with a small amount of power fine red sand, lots of iron. I mix the red, white, and yellow clays to get a better balance of minerals.

If I could get corn to grow here it wouldn't blow down.

{{gwi:52623}}

I don't think I will complain about my clay anymore ;- )

Where in AR ARE you? I'm in NE AR, and I've never seen that!

I don't think I'll complain about my sandy soil anymore.

I have rock......Still complaining ;)

Kristi

caroline1,

You would be up on the delta soil. I'm a bit SW of Little Rock. Clay is found in spots from Little Rock west across the Ouchita Mountains and south across the coastal plain. There is a big brick factory in Malvern, and near here there was some beautiful pottery made from the local clay (google 'niloak swirl)

I get the feeling some of you don't like the looks of my clay. Truth is, that beautiful clay is about the best thing that can happen to a gardener. When I talk about clay gardening here, it's almost like I was Rodney Dangerfield.

Think about it now, loose soil that never sets hard. Check the corn pic at the top again or go search for some of the many other photos I've posted over the years. Almost no weeding, no compost needed, no mulch needed. few if any problems from fungus or slugs. Gardening should be fun, not work. All possible because of that beautiful clay.

But from what you're telling us that clay is useless, not even
weeds will grow, unless you ammend it with lots of sand.

Very few gardeners have a high quality clay at the surface. Clay of this type is more apt to be found in the subsoil. Since most gardeners don't have this, how it can be amended is not of much interest. But why this clay will not, by itself, grow plants can be instructional to all gardeners.

The clay in the photo can have its moisture level kept at any level from wet to dry, and at no point will it support growth.

It has a natural ph of around 5.5. This can be increased with lime. But still there will be no growth.

Likewise, a good compost, having been made from a combination of greens, browns, and part manure, in an amount sufficient amend a pure sand can be tried. In three days the result is a putrid mess. No plant growth.

If the problem is not water, ph, or nutrients, what is it? And why does adding an inert element (sand) correct the problem. The answer is oxygen.

Where a soil problem prevents optimum plant growth, the best result is had when the true problem is addressed. Adding nutrients won't overcome a deficiency of water. Water management won't correct a nutrient problem. And neither will correct a ph problem.

A pure clay, in mass, always has a severe oxygen deficiency. Therefore it is an excellent medium to study how oxygen deficiency affects plant growth.

Clay can be partially amended in degrees. The effect of different levels of oxygen deficiency on plant development can then be observed. So too can the soil be amended to different depths to observe the result of a shallow good soil over one that has a deeper and certain oxygen deficiency.

Most of my gardening success with clay, and even other soil types, I attribute to the 20 years of observation and study of oxygen deficiency.

All plants need a certain volume of soil for proper developement. The more one restricts this volume the more important it becomes to keep the nutrient and moisture levels near the ideal for that plant. Up to a point, nutrient and water management can over come a restricted root zone. Over the last 30 years the availability of cheap fertilizer and organic amendment has been halked to deal with restricted volume. It would be better stop treating what is a symptom and correct the true problem.

Plants don't much care what the shape of their root zone volume is. It can be shallow and wide or narrow and deep. Most often the depth of the active root zone is controled by oxygen deficiency.

I see so many beds that because the oxygen deficiency has not been corrected, the plants have been spread widely apart and mulch used to bring the soil surface into the active root zone by keeping it moist and the temperture down.

Most of the photos I've posted over the years show plants with vigorous growth and very closely spaced. This is possible only because the active root zone of a sand clay mix runs very deep.

Sand does not have an oxygen deficiency. The problem with sand is a nutrient deficiency. Silt is often prone to have a moderate oxygen deficiency at times. If you mix a small amount of silt to sand you still have a nutrient deficiency. If you mix a small amount of sand to silt you still have the same level of oxygen problem. There is a point in mixing these two soil types where the problems will ovelap and you will have both a nutrient deficiency and a moderate oxygen deficiency.

When you mix a small amount of clay to sand, or a small amount of sand to clay, not much is changed. But there is a point in the mix amounts where the good properties of both types overlap and the result is high nutrient levels with good oxygen levels.

It is a bad ideal to amend silt with sand, but sand can work wonders on clay. So if you should amend silt with organics and clay with sand, what can you do if you start with a soil that is both silt and clay? Though both sand and organics can help, neither is the perfect amendment. The answer here is the use of particles of different shape.

If you fill a box with coins and shake it, the coins settle together without much air space. The same is true if you fill the box with marbles. Now try a box of half coins, half marbles. The two shapes don't fit together well and a great deal of air space is created.

The same type thing can be done with soil. You need a round blocky particle and a thin flat one. Sand works for the first type and the most commonly available second type is mica.

Where the soil already has one of the types in it, addition of even small amounts of the other can get good results.
And in this amendment, a fine grade of sand often works better than a coarse one. Sand in the soil can be determined by a jar test or even just feeling for grit in the soil.

Mica in soil can be seen as sparkles from the soil where you cannot isolate or remove the source of the sparkle from the soil. The quantity of mica in soil is almost impossible for a gardener to determine. Probably all that is needed for good results is one half of one percent of soil volune.

Most gardeners know mica in the form of vermiculite. Put some in your hand and then remove all the lumps of vermiculite. Now look for sparkles that still shine from your hand. Though you can see them, the mica particles will be too thin to feel.

So if you start with a silt clay soil, amend with up to 15 percent fine sand and or mica as needed. (Does this sound a lot like how Martin is so successful with his amendment?) Keep in mind that if the soil is devoid of mica and vermiculite is used, it will take some time for the vermiculie to break down into the tiny flakes of mica needed. Leaving the vermiculite near the surface over winter, subject to freeze thaw cycles, can help.

Here's an update on that corn shown at the start of this thread. The first silk is showing.

The var. is Peaches n Cream, labeled for 82 days. My first time to grow this variety. Looks like this patch may make about 5 days early. In the photo inset to the right I show one of the stalks. All stalks appear to be developing 3 ears.

{{gwi:292943}}

It's been pointed out on this forum many times that the books say my methods for clay amendment are all wrong. Maybe if I followed the book I would get 5 ears to the stalk. Anybody got photos?

My sand clay mix in the corn patch ...

{{gwi:292945}}

Looking good! I'll trade you some of my sand for some of your clay.

thanks swanz,

I thought I was doing good. But maybe not.

There is a guy in the container forum that says he is growing corn in 2 liter bottles, 100 stalks in a 3' by 6' space, and geting 3 ears to the stalk.

Kinda puts my 10 stalks in a like size space to shame, don't it. I've been outdone 10 to 1. Just once I'd like to brag a bit and not get egg on my face.

Thank you for an excellent description of soil aggregates.

So why is growing in what you are growing in better than a soil with the same components as well as more organic material? Or is it just easier for you to grow in those situations and still achieve good things without adding organic material? Would adding organic material to your soil make it better?

When making the sand clay mix I use, adding organics would mask the true properties of the mix and I wouldn't know when I have the right ratio of sand to clay.

The addition of organics would also interfer with my methods of weed supression.

I explained a lot of this in the thread below ...

Here is a link that might be useful: RE: what to do about my clay soil

pls8xx,

I remember your post very well once I saw that clay. How can anyone forget that picture. I will not tell you about my corn this year that I grew in my amended clay. All I will say is I grew ears on the suckers too, fed them to a neighbors' goats (but I do grow in 50ft beds). You have a wonderful way with words, explaining things simple and understandable.

I have the idea now thanks to your help. Let me say this before we come to next year; I plan to plant 1x1x1 and see what happens, and this time I will take pics...

Blutranes

pls8xx,

I will try to refrain from complaining about my clay soil in the future:)

I noticed you are in zone 8a. Other than Peaches and Cream, have you grown any other varieties with success? Oh, and trust me, you can brag about your 3 ears to a stalk without having egg on your face. You 3, me 0.

I tried growing corn during summer of '05. It was a disaster. It got some kind of gray smut? Something like that. I didn't try this past season because our weather was so off the charts crazy and I was having problems with things I'd been successful with in the past. I'm looking to next year though. So I am curious if you've grown other varieties with success and if so, which ones.

Michelle

But pls8xx, I thought organic material was necessary to grow plants. Or, at least, I thought, if organic material was missing from a soil, then there is a negative consequence of this. What are your thoughts on that?

The use of organic material, in one form or another, by one method or another, does play a vital role in many garden systems. But to say, as an absolute, that organic material is a must for plant health, is just plain wrong.

shellva,

I am so short on bed space I don't always grow corn. Often when I do it's Early Sunglow. Not because it's a great corn, but because I can grow it quick and then follow it with something else. There are some newer varities that make fast and I'm thinking of trying one.

The first time I grew corn as a teen in the family garden my father told me it was useless. He said the soil would not grow corn or potatos. Having great success with many other crops the year before I planted it anyway, three 30 ft rows (typical teen, daddy knowes nothing).

The corn took off like a rocket, grew to 13 feet high. I got my dad to help me put in fence posts and wire to hold it up. I think I got a total of 5 ears of corn from that patch.