Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Corn in the backyard 2010 redux?

Most of the corn is harvested by now around here, but there's an interesting phenomenon occurring in most of those harvested fields: a second crop of corn. It's possible to get a couple crops of wheat harvested in a year around here, but I don't believe I've ever seen two crops of corn on the same ground. This year the conditions were right: an early harvest, warm weather following harvest, a bit of rain, and enough hours of sunlight to coax thousands of stray kernels to produce armies of volunteer baby cornstalks.

It doesn't seem to matter if the field has been tilled or not, most all of them have these little boogers popping up in a much more random fashion than their parent plants in the spring.

So, of course, a post about corn in the backyard would not be complete without a picture across the field. Not all of those green plants out there are corn, but plenty of them are. Sorry, Kathryn, I'm sure you thought you were safe until spring....

8 comments:

  1. Whoo-hoo!! :-)

    I was hoping we might get another corn post this year! :D

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  2. Well, I have surely learned my lesson. I am never safe around this blog! Thankfully, I had my heart attack medication at hand and so was able to avert a premature death.

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  3. I always find it very interesting to compare the progress/state of our crops here in upstate NY with the crops in your neck o'the woods. Most of the corn fields around here have yet to be harvested. They are in that green-to-brown stage now, and I'm getting antsy! I need my fall fix of cornstalks!! Ideally I'd like to do my fall decorating at the beginning of September, but the farmers around here simply will not adhere to my timetable. The noyve!

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  4. My father in-law had tomatoes sprout wild in his garden after last season's harvest. They ended up with more tomatoes than ever before, and they didn't have to do any planting.
    I wonder if you will have a warm fall that lasts long enough to actually get some corn.

    Victoria

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  5. Emil -- always happy to oblige!

    Kathryn -- I did my best to help you survive this one...

    Diane -- Life must be horrible without cornstalks on your porch. I'd offer some of our IL stalks, but most all of them are chopped to smithereens right now. Maybe you need to threaten your NY farmers that you'll go to IL for your stalks if they don't shape up!

    Victoria -- I was prepared to track the progress to see how far they would go before the cold temperatures killed them, but they all got tilled under yesterday, so there's not much hope there are any survivors out there. I'm guessing the odds of volunteer plants surviving are a little higher in your part of the world than they are here.

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  6. I"m still picking green peppers and tomatos from my garden. Of course we are still dealing with those awful mosquitoes too!

    Victoria

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  7. Hi there!
    I have a message for Lily, and I didn't know any other way to get it to her, so please forgive the slightly misplaced comment! Over a year ago, I wrote a comment about her lovely period gowns sewing portfolio you photographed at CW, and I asked for the name of the fabric she used for one of them. She very generously helped me find it, and I promised to share my gown with her when I finished it. It's taken over a year, but it's finally done and posted on my blog! My thanks again to her for her help; I just love the fabric! And I'm eagerly anticipating the final product from the polonaise workshop, too!
    Rebecca

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  8. Well faithful Riggenbachs.. I wanted to let you know that this Thursday we are going out to the farm to finally get our cornstalks. I spoke to the farmer's wife and mentioned that our NY farmers were really falling down in their obligation to provide me with my autumnal decor items, and that if they didn't shape up right quick I'd have to take my cornstalk searching elsewhere. Hmph!

    I'm certain she was grateful for the timely words of warning. *nodding head*

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