Corn Workin'

Was happy to see my Corn make an appearance finally.  We've had some warmer weather so I'm thinking that pushed it into action.  I've setup the pattern so that I will hopefully get decent pollination without manual intervention from me.  See, corn is really amazing, it self-pollinates(monoecious) as it has both a male and female flower.  The mail flower is at the top, the "tassel" and the female flower is the corn silk that protrudes from the husk.  A silk for each kernel; any that are missed will leave a blank spot in the cob.  So the wind blows the pollen from the tassel which with the assistance of gravity falls down making contact with (and sticking to) silks along the way.  As if that wasn't amazing enough, as each silk is pollinated it will turn brown and dry up - it's job is done.

In situations where you don't take this incredible natural process into consideration and plant corn in a less than ideal configuration you will need to manually pollinate.  Quite literally you will need to take a section of tassel and present (shake, rub - whatever) onto the silks.  It's works, I've had to do it.  ;0)

I planted an early variety that will hopefully handle the still unstable weather and occasional cool day/night and still yield a decent harvest. I like corn, but I already have this feeling that in a "space-challenged" growing area it may not be worth the work.