Silver Queen corn


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Old 06-21-21, 06:57 PM
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Silver Queen corn

Many years ago, like 30+ I lived in MD, near Bowie. Ground was sand down about as far as you could dig. We had 5 acres, fenced it and had a couple horses. I had a garden behind the barn, really a run in shed, and I would grow all sorts of stuff. I made a large patch for Silver Queen and after the 3rd planting it finally came up. I would take the horse manure right out of the shed into the rows of corn and just pile it between the plants. If weeds came up, I would just throw more manure on them. The stuff grew about 8' tall and my mother and I picked corn late in the summer for about 2 days. When the stuff started coming on, I would go out in the morning and just pick an ear and eat it raw. Best corn I've ever tasted. So my mother and I shucked the corn, threw 3 of them into a freezer bag and right into a freezer. That corn lasted well into the winter when my wife gave a party around Christmas and we ate the rest of it. If that hadn't happened we would have had corn on the cob for 2x a week the rest of the year.

Anyhow now I live in VA, Fauquier county. I have a small unused garden about 20 x 8'. Plan is to put a 10' fence around it for the deer, raccoons, and rabbits and dogs. Deer are prolific here and so is the 300 Savage.

Big question is it's so late in the year this may be the last time to try to get it to germinate, it's a 90 day maturity,. I remember in MD, it took planing 3 times to get it to come up, wet spring and it rotted in the ground even in the sand. I'm wondering given the small plot I have if I should just try to germinate the stuff inside for a small root and then plant it? I bought about 200 seeds from Seed Needs. I just got them and they look OK.
 
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Old 06-21-21, 07:05 PM
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Corn is not a plant that transplants well. It's best to seed directly into the ground. If it didn't come up last time its because either the ground was too cold, it was planted too deep or it wasn't kept moist, or some combination.
 
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Old 06-21-21, 07:17 PM
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Then maybe my best plan is to dig a trench like suggested about 6-8" deep, plant the seeds and cover them with about 3" of some nice soil like the manure/humus mixture from Scotts I got at HD I remember I pretty much kept the old garden piled up against the plants like a raised row. I do have an irrigation system so I can keep them moist, even this time of year, it's getting a bit dry. but I'm sure the early ones I did in MD rotted in the ground. They also had some sort of red fungicide on the seeds, I probably got them at Southern States in MD. These seeds look plain.
 
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Old 06-21-21, 07:20 PM
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2" is the optimum depth.............
 
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Old 06-22-21, 05:25 AM
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I think you are about too late for planting. Even with 90 day corn you're going to be at October by harvest time and sweet corn isn't going to properly develop with shortening day length and cooler temperatures.
 
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Old 06-22-21, 07:11 AM
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I know I'm right at the end of when it will work. If I can get it to germinate fast, I'm thinking it will be mature in about the end of Sep. It will have the hot time of the year to grow. It's still pretty warm here in Sep. I usually don't even see a freeze until Nov, but that's not to say I haven't seen it snow in early October. One year it did snow Oct 10 and I woke up to the branches of the trees falling to the ground, The Blue Ridge were white with snow.

I found this and was wondering if it might be viable? It's from a site I found on Silver Queen, but you can find a lot of crap on the interweb.
"Drain the seeds in the morning and give them a fresh rinse in cool water. Cover them with a damp paper towel to conserve moisture, and continue rinsing them at least three times daily until they germinate. In roughly two to five days, a small root will emerge from each kernel; it's planting time."

The local field corn has just come up around here.
 
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Old 06-22-21, 09:03 AM
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Yes, you can do many different tricks to get the seeds to germinate more rapidly and reliably. I usually just soak them in water for 24-36 hours before planting so avoid the risks of the full paper towel method. The paper towel method can be risky for fungus so be careful and not keep the towel too wet. Also, the seeds must be kept in total darkness, especially the root that first emerges. The first root is very delicate. Be very careful to not damage it when planting.

In another season I'd say keeping the soil above 50f would be a big help but I don't think that's an issue now. But, anything you can do to keep your corn in the optimal temperature ranges will help.

 
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Old 06-22-21, 12:23 PM
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Thanks for that info. Temps here from now on should range from the mid 70's at night to near the 90's if not more during the day. With typical exceptions of course.

I'm sure that the first two plantings I did years ago rotted because it was a very wet spring. Even though the seeds had Captan on them. The third planting all came up. Maybe what I'll do is soak the seeds like you say for about 30 hours and plant them directly in that humus/compost mixture from Scotts in the garden. These seeds have nothing on them.

Now I need to plan the deer fence but I think I've got about everything I need except the posts. I've found that I have a bunch of steel T posts that 1 1/2 inch pvc conduit will exactly fit over. That stuff comes in 10' sections and I can tie the tops together with a 10' 2x2 or something I can find in the woods, I only have about 35 acres of woods. Chicken wire on the bottom, and and maybe another chicken wire layer at the 8' height. I have chicken wire out the wazoo.

My yard guy is excited about it too!.
 
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Old 06-22-21, 01:51 PM
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Hard not to get excited about your own, home grown Silver Queen.
 
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Old 06-22-21, 07:27 PM
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I've been thinking about it for years. I just haven't put a plan in action until now. The thought of the deer decimating the small plot as well as the black bears we have here, they would kill the plan. It could be the bears get it anyhow, They don't care about fencing. They've been on our deck which has no stairs to it. I've got a picture of one of them through our glass door, the thing was about as big as a 700 lb heifer. He/she was there for the bird seed which we don't keep any more for that reason. I'll get the electric charger out.
 
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Old 06-23-21, 04:50 AM
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About 10 years ago I built a maximum security raised bed garden. With it we grow 1/4 the crops we used to but get to keep everything so we end up with much more in the freezer. Deer were bad but we had the most damage from opossum, groundhogs and racoons.
 
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Old 06-23-21, 09:20 AM
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This garden I've got is surrounded by a stone wall, it does have some foundation so hopefully the burrowing animals won't get to it. Raccoons and possums may be an issue if they climb the fence.
 
 

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