4 ms·
We've done it for the last 5 years. For the most part things grew well - one frustration: 12 corn stalks was NOT enough. The article hints at it near the bot
by horsawlarway 3y ago
We've done it for the last 5 years. For the most part things grew well - one frustration:
12 corn stalks was NOT enough. The article hints at it near the bottom:
> Corn is wind-pollinated and while capable of self-pollinating you will have more success with more plants. It is best to have at least 10-20 corn plants to provide sufficient pollen availability but plant more if you have the space to increase your success.
I would not recommend anything less than 20 corn plants, and if you are planting somewhere with some wind protection... more still. Our first 2 years - the corn was not adequately pollinated (12 plants in year 1, and 24 in year 2).
You can still eat some of it, but an ear that's only 20% kernel and 80% empty is a bummer.
The squash and beans are still delish.
- changoplatanero 3y agoI planted four corn plants and had to hand pollinate it. Tedious to do it that way but I agree with you that it won’t naturally be pollinated with so few plants
- spathi_fwiffo 3y agoI wonder if a box-fan would work.
- MostlyStable 3y agoHow were you hand pollinating? I've done it with ~100 plants and it takes ~5 minutes every couple of days for a few weeks. Certainly not _nothing_ but relative to other garden tasks, pretty easy.
- MostlyStable 3y agoI've grown field corn the last several years with ~100 plants. While I did not plant in a wind-pollinating maximizing way, my experience is that anyone who is planting at home scale needs to be ready to hand pollinate. I would be shocked if 10-20 plants, no matter how they were planted and what the wind conditions are, would have particularly high pollination rates.