Ill-timed corn

The tassels starting to emerge a week ago. Note the stormy sky in the background - this was taken around midday...

The tassels starting to emerge a week ago. Note the stormy sky in the background – this was taken around midday…

It’s happened again. Just as our white corn plants started maturing, the weather changed and the pollen from the tassels was washed away by the incessant rain over the last week or so. So, now that the first silks have started appearing, I’m left with nothing to pollinate them with.

Washed-out tassels. I didn't have the opportunity to collect the pollen because it rained so much, and there has been a lot of insect activity in this patch - lots of breeding aphids, mainly. I may post about that later - or I may not because it was pretty depressing to see the insects thrive at the cost of my plants...

Washed-out tassels. I didn’t have the opportunity to collect the pollen because it rained so much, and there has been a lot of insect activity in this patch – lots of breeding aphids, mainly. I may post about that later – or I may not because it was pretty depressing to see the insects thrive at the cost of my plants…

Some of the other plants are lagging behind in growth, but they haven’t produced tassels yet, so it looks like this round will be “corn kosong” again.

The first corn silks, spotted today.

The first corn silks, spotted today.

I think I’ll try starting the next set of corn in October or November, so that the plants will start maturing in the beginning of the year, when we’re supposed to have less rain. Of course, being the rainy season when I start the plants out will probably bring another set of problems (snails, most likely).

It’s all trial and error…

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