Hi Julia

Garden looks promising! Tasty raspberries and lemons to use it in dishes, very good. What variety of corn did you plant? That is one hard crop to grow because you need a lot of space for the ears to be pollinated, shake the tassels and see if that helps. They also like nitrogen to grow, did you amend the soil? Let us know how it works for you.

Silvia

I always want to grow corn, but since you only get one or possibly two ears per stalk, you need a lot of corn and real estate to make a good harvest.

Early in the morning when the dew dries off from the tassel, I use my thumb and forefinger to snap the tassel to release the pollen (the tassel has to be dry) to fall down onto the green hairs growing out of the baby corn ear. Each and every hair leads down to only one corn seed and has to receive pollen dust or it will not form a corn seed and you will have blank spots on the ear when harvested.
I have stolen my wife's soft, poofy face powder brush to brush the pollen powder over the hairs. If you do this daily until the hairs turn dry you should get a fairly well formed full ear of corn. Note; that some of the pollen will fall into where the leaves comes off of the stalk and I've used the brush to gather that pollen and use it too.

Normally the wind pollinates the ears in a large stand of corn but in a little bitty corn garden, you have to be the bee or the wind.

I hope this helps,
Lou

Thanks Lou. I don't have any ears of corn yet.

I tried corn last year in an area about the size you have. I only got a couple of edible ears, but there is no substitute for actually growing and observing the life cycle of a food you eat. It is very educational and attractive too.

if you have the tassels you should have the immature ears with fine hair, but you are probably not recognizing them. Check close at where the leaves come away from the stalk. If you find nothing then you are not feeding the plants heavy enough, corn is a heavy feeder and a nitrogen hog. You should be side dressing with fertilizer every week and working it in. Corn also needs lots of water.

Lou

Yes, corn is a piggy for sure, for everything. Won't tolerate much shade, either.

And just when after much work you have managed to get piggy to make an ear, a raccoon will eat it while you are sleeping. There's life's natural cycle, for you! Maybe if you are lucky there aren't any coons or skunks in your neighborhood.

I've seen raccoon's but no skunks. Lou you are right, I'm not feeding it enough. I'll put some down real soon. I do think I'm watering it enough.

Looking good but, when you get ready to pick the corn preferably 1/2 hour before you plan to eat it, put on some water to boil. When boiling, pick the corn, boil untill fork penetrates the cobb with ease, probably 15-20 minutes dependent on humidity, and serve. You will never get better eating corn. Never ever husk it and let it set more then a very few minutes. Try it. Corn bought in even a produce stand, no matter when picked, will not compare with TRUE FRESHNESS from your garden.

Lou, I'm not seeing anything that might resemble corn so I guess I didn't feed it enough. Is it too late? I put down some CRF on top, but will do some miracle grow as well. That may help the smaller ones coming up, right?

And Greenfinger, thanks for the tips. I agree, nothing tastes as good as something fresh picked from your garden. Even if I get just a couple ears, it will be a fun experiment. I may not do it next year if it is too much of a hassle though, but you've got to try something even once to know, right?

It can't hurt to try more fertilizer, just keep an eye out for those baby ears and the fine corn silk hairs as time passes, even keep an eye on the tasseled corn plant as they could pop out later.(sometimes the weather causes aberrations in growth)

The Native Americans used to bury a whole fish six inches under each corn seed to fertilize it as it grew. I'm not recommending you do this as it draws raccoons & armadillo's for miles around but I'm only making the point of how corn is a very heavy feeder.

Lou