Yeah, I read that in the PNW gardening book I bought -- that's why I said "fit of enthusiasm". :-)

All my vegetable gardening is experimental. If I don't get any ears I just won't grow corn next year.

My dad was much the same......always optimistic :-) But what few ears did develop were usually discovered and consumed by the squirrels long before they got large enough to harvest and eat.

Stupid squirrels.

Although fully tasseled, your corn is not very tall and somewhat spindly. When did your plant? Are there even tiny cobs forming?

I planted right around June 15, so probably a little late. The stalks are over 5 feet tall -- are they supposed to be taller?

The type is "Golden Cross Bantam (Hybrid)" and the seed packet says 85 days to harvest. Which would be in a couple of weeks.

I am seeing cobs -- this is the first time I've grown corn and I was looking in the wrong place. They look like they're about 6" long, but still welded to the main stalk and not hanging off separate. So I guess it already pollinated itself. :-)

Not necessarily. Those cobs are just the female flowers....each undeveloped kernal is an ovule and the silk that grows from the embryonic cobs functions as the stigma and style of the female flower and the pathway for the male pollen to reach and fertilize the ovule. It is only when the kernals begin to grow and enlarge that successful fertilization has taken place. Cobs can develop that have fat, fertilized kernals as well as the tiny, undeveloped embryonic kernals that would indicate uneven or incomplete fertilization.

Plant sex can be very complicated :-) And it often differs radically from plant to plant. Corn is rather unusual.

Your corn should be ready to harvest about three weeks, give or take, after the silk appears and when it changes from that greenish blonde color to dry and brown. But check the cobs first by pulling back husks and examining the kernals. They should be plump, well colored and juicy if pierced wih your thumbnail.

Not Corn Country? But I see vast fields planted all along the Snoqualmie and Snohomish rivers? And here's my own not so vast planting. Ears have been forming for a couple of weeks now. Should be ready soon.

I'm not saying it can't be done......only that our PNW climate is not conducive to growing it easily or well :-) Part of the problem is soil temps. It needs soils of at least 60F for the seeds to germinate and that doesn't often happen here until well into June, so you need varieties with a very short period to harvest, as you do with other hot season veggies. And it is a water and nutrient hog, which is something that is often overlooked. Inadequate watering, especially as the tassels (male flowers) are forming, can result in uneven kernal formation. And that also coincides with our driest period.

Most of the local fresh corn sold in area markets is from the eastern half of the state, which has much better conditions for growing corn. And many of those fields you notice nearby are intended for corn mazes, so actual harvesting of well formed cobs is a secondary consideration. If it is even sweet corn and not feed corn.

Plants shown in original post badly need to be fertilized with a nitrogen source.

I'll get right on that. I've been fertilizing them once every week or ten days with a general-purpose vegetable fertilizer, but I'll look for one that's more nitrogen-rich. Especially for next year.

10 Tips for Growing Corn in the Pacific Northwest

http://barbolian.com/grow-corn-in-the-pacific-northwest/

Growing Sweet Corn in Home Gardens - WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION FACT SHEET FS104E

http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/FS104E/FS104E.pdf

Turns out my corn needed a <i>little</i> help but not too much. I've got 10 or 12 ears about 8" long out there. I picked one Friday night and roasted it, and although small it was sweeter and more tender than grocery store corn.

Several of the shorter plants have zero ears, though, so when I try again next year I'm going to put them in a different bed and fertilize the hell out of them. And maybe manually assist in pollinating the shorter ones.

Nice!

Out of our 7 plants we got about 8 ears or so. Some were small, and some that we ate several weeks ago were not as sweet as the last few, which we're very sweet. Will deffinitely plant some next year, though I'll try to get them in earlier.