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Re: too late for corn?

When I got out of the US Army I worked for a while at the University of Florida
Agricultural Experiment Station at Belle Glade, Florida. One of my jobs there
was to control the pollination of the corn trying to develop new varieties. We
used the paper bag method.
When the tassel at the top looks as if it is about to start dropping pollen put
a paper bag over it and secure it with string so none of the pollen falls out.
About a week later bend the tassel (and the bag) over and shake it so the pollen
falls into the bag. Then remove the bag and sprinkle the pollen directly on the
silk of an ear. If the plant is producing two ears you can easily divide the
pollen so there is enough for both.
Clark Womack - Zone 8 - Harper, Texas    100 miles west of Austin

Richard Callwood III wrote:

> At 11:39 AM 5/24/98 -0500, Sophia Hansen wrote:
> >Help!
> >
> >My son wants to plant corn, (as well as cabege, carots, green baens,
> >tomatos & potatos.)  I thought I'd try the carrots, beans, cabbage &
> >potatoes in the fall but was hoping I could sqeeze in a couple squares of
> >corn down here in zone 7 (Nashville, TN.)  Are we too late?  Am I just
> >setting us up for failure??  I haven't heard of too many success stories
> >re: corn in a square so if you have any--pls advise!!!  We have some sorry
> >looking fish in an aquarium that I'm going to empty anyway--should I make
> >like an indian and plant a fish under the seed??  The boy might enjoy
> >learning about the circle of life thing/practical chemistry...
> >TIA
> >Fia
>
> In zone 7, i don't think timing is your problem here.  The problem is that
> you can't just plant one or two corn plants; you need to plant several rows
> in order to get adequate pollination.  I heard of a trick using paper bags
> if you don't have that many corn plants; perhaps someone else can fill you
> in on that process.
>
> Green beans do not like fall weather, so you would need to plant them right
> now.  If what you have are bush beans you can stagger-plant another set
> every couple of weeks until late summer.  Potatoes require special growing
> techniques, and i think they are also summer plants.
>
> Carrots and cabbage do like fall weather.  You would need to plant them
> during the summer to give them a good head start.  Late summer would be good
> for the carrots.  You can count back a couple of months from your expected
> first frost date.  Cabbage takes a lot longer to grow.  What you can do is
> start the seeds in trays between now and July and then transplant them into
> the garden later in the summer.  (Don't look for cabbage seedlings in the
> nursery in late summer; if my experiences in Boston are typical, the
> nurseries stop selling vegetables after the spring rush.)
> --
> @->-`-,----------------------------------------------+
> |  Cousin Ricky      USDA zone 11, Virgin Islands    |
> |  rcallwo@uvi.edu   formerly zone 6, Massachusetts  |
> +----------------------------------------------------+
>
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