Knee High by the Fourth of July

Most people have heard the saying about corn : it should be knee high by the Forth of July if you are going to get a good crop.  If this is true, then I am expecting a stellar harvest from this years corn plantings.  The corn I planted in late April was a gamble that appears to be paying off.  This corn comes to my shoulders already!  I am glad it is growing so well because the beans that I planted in this row will be climbing these corn plants very soon.  They have already been stretching out their tendrils looking for something to climb.  As fast as this corn is growing I think it might just keep ahead of the beans and still be strong enough to support them as they grow.

The second planting of corn was done around Mother's Day and isn't quite as tall as the first planting, but it isn't far behind.  The weeds among these rows have gotten out of hand, so these plants may be a little stunted from their competition.  This weeks garden projects involved weeding these rows very thoroughly and then mulching the walking paths heavily to keep the weeds down.

I think I owe the height of these rows of corn to the variety of corn I chose to plant.  It is call Pungo Creek Butcher.  It is a dent corn that can grow over 10 feet tall and produces beautiful large cobs of corn in a variety of reds, purples, and yellows.  I plan on using it to supplement my chicken feed this winter, so a decent harvest could save me a few trips to the feed store.  I was able to grow this from seed that I had saved from previous years and am pleased by how well it grew even though the seed was a few years old.  I like to save the seed from the largest cobs with colors that appeal to me.  I figure that any type of seed saving of old varieties of corn might help preserve varieties that would otherwise be lost to time.  Who knows, I might even selectively breed the corn enough to come up with my own strain of it that is well adapted to the growing conditions here in this semi arid area.  I have noticed that it seems to tolerate the heat here well as long as it is adequately watered.