Ezzirah - I'm jealous you have dirt that will hold the water! We have such sandy soil that is would drain right thru.

I don't think we are supposed to get more than a couple of inches of precip anywhere in the state, are we? Since we've been so dry - I think they should be fine as long as they are protected from wind and/or hail. If you're still worried, I'd bring them into a garage until the storms pass...actually, mine have to come into the dining room. ha!

Paula

just go and pump it out as soon as you get home?

Unless you're expecting 3 to 5" of rain or more in a short period...like in one day, I wouldn't worry. Without seeing or knowing more about your cold frame, it is hard to understand how it could hold a lot of water and not allow the water to drain away. Do you mean that it fills up like a swimming pool and the water doesn't drain away within a few hours? If so, I'd take them out of the frame and just put them on the porch, patio, driveway, etc. in an east or north-facing location where they get morning sun and afternoon shade if possible.

Since they've been covered with a dark screen, they likely couldn't tolerate full-sun all day long yet, but they ought to be able to tolerate part sun or dappled shade.

Since there's been a 180-degree shift in the weather pattern, I don't think you have to worry about the combination of high heat/high wind we've had lately but a very heavy rainfall in a short time might not be good for the plants.

If they were mine, I'd likely leave them where they are, take off the dark screen to let them get more sun since it is going to be cloudy to partly cloudy and then if it rained enough to fill up the frame, I'd lift them up out of it after that occurred. Sitting in water an hour or two or three won't kill the plants, but for a day or two or three, it might.

Putting them back outside if they are halfway through the hardening off process wouldn't be good for them at this time. If they stay inside several days, they'll lose the progress they've made towards hardening off and then you're back at square one and starting all over again. That's something I've been through repeatedly with my pepper plants this spring....moving them out to harden off, moving them in to keep them out of 40-50+ mph winds that were beating them to death....moving them out....moving them in. I think I've lost track of whether mine are or are not fully hardened off at this point, but they're outside today and I'll leave them there unless hail starts falling or something....

Dawn

It certainly does not look like we will get that much rain, and the screen has been off and on for certain lengths of time. Not on all the time. I am just weary to take the chance.

I was wondering as well, is it too late to plant corn as wind breaks? All my beds run east and west in the yard. I was thinking of right down the rows along the edges of the beds plant some corn and as the corn grows it can be a bit of a wind break for the plants in the bed. Would something like that work? (I realize that is off topic, but thought I would ask..)

I know corn will not grow over night, I am thinking of down the road.

I am not sure if you are wanting to plant corn in order to harvest corn as well, or only to have the stalks for wind breaks?

If you want to harvest corn, you need to plant in blocks that have at least 4 rows of corn plants. Corn is wind-pollinated and in long single rows, poor pollination often gives you cobs with few to no kernels of corn.

If you want to grow corn merely to give you something tall to block the wind, single rows will be fine but won't block the wind as well as you're hoping. Corn tends to lodge (blow over) in the wind.

I have planted corn as a windblock before, but since I wasn't expecting to harvest corn from it, I mixed Red Stalker corn (grown for its lovely reddish stalks for autumn decorations) and Ornamental Maize (a Japanese corn with variegated leaves) in a double row with lion's tail, grain amaranths from Seeds of Change, and Sunflowers from Seeds of Change (Discovery Mix and the big Double Gold one). It worked out pretty well. Remember, though, that corn will grow, mature and die, so it doesn't give you a windblock for the whole season. One way around that is to plant something to climb the cornstalks after they die. In various years, I've planted Heavenly Blue Morning Glory, purple or white hyacinth beans, regular edible pole beans, Scarlet Runner Beans, cardinal climber or cypress vine or black-eyed susan vine, or moonflowers. In order for that to work, you need a really sturdy corn variety that produces very tall and very stout stalks or the vines will pull it down. In the year I had the best results, I grew mixed colors of broom corn and hyacinth beans in 2003. The broom corn (with steady irrigation) got 12-16' tall and the hyacinth beans climbed to the top and then cascaded back down to the ground again, eventually bending the broom corn down to the ground with the weight of the vines by mid-Sept. It was a great windblock.

If I wanted to plant something as a wind block in limited space where I couldn't have 2 to 4 rows to provide a dense windblock, I'd choose something sturdier, like some of the tall sunflowers or tall grain-type amaranths. However, sunflowers can have an alleopathic effect on some veggies and other flowers so if planting them along the edge of a garden to serve as a windblock, you need to plant them 2 to 3' from the nearest row of anything you want to grow well and produce.

When using corn as a windblock, you have to be really careful with its placement as it can shade other plants too much and interfere with their production.

Another favorite of mine for a windblock is Castor Bean. However, if you have pets or children that might eat the beans, which are poisonous, you need to remove the seedheads before they form beans. When I grow Castor Beans they often get 8 to 12' tall with little effort on my part other than occasionally watering them. They spread out pretty wide and dense and give you a lovely tropical foliage look.

does it make a difference that the rows would only be 3 feet from each other, would they still pollenate?

They should still pollinate somewhat but it just depends on your wind direction.

Have you grown corn before? If not, we need to have the corn sex talk so you'll know how they accomplish reproduction. : )

Here it is (and I promise to keep it G-rated):

You have the ears and corn silks emerge lower down on the plant right along the stalk. That's the female portion of the plant.

You have the tassels further up on the plant and they are the male portion of the plant. Anthers emerge from the top of the tassels and the anthers shed the grains of pollen that will fall down onto or blow sideways onto the cornsilks to fertilize the silks. For each fertilized silk, you get one kernel of corn. It takes the fertilization of a lot of silks to get a full ear of corn. However, corn pollen is very light and travels far on the wind....up to about a mile sometimes.

If you are in a wide-open area where lots of wind hits your plants, then corn in rows 3' from one another should have enough wind movement to move the pollen from the tassels to the silks of the plants around them. If you are in a city setting (or in some sort of other setting where buildings are on several sides of your garden and impede air flow) where houses, sheds, garages and wooden stockade fences interfere with good air flow, rows 3' apart might have hit-and-miss fertilization or might have good pollination, depending on what the wind does.

Sometimes people who plant one long single row get very poor fertilization. Sometimes they get fairly decent fertilization. However long, single rows rarely have good, full ears on every plant. It is normally more hit and miss.

Are you wanting to plant corn on all 4 sides of a 3' x 3' area, like a cold frame? I'm having a hard time picturing corn used as a wind block but with the rows only 3' from each other unless they're only serving as a wind block for a single row or bed of something.