2024 garden season

[Yander]

How do you keep the ear worms out of the corn? I have thin topsoil with clay just below it. I've been adding a large pile of compost from the hay I feed my cows every year. Last year I was able to finally get corn to do well, but the worms ate a lot of it. I've read about putting vegetable oil on the silk. Anything else I can do?

Plant your corn early. Ear worms as I understand it is a later season threat. Last year I re-planted my corn late due to the first stand getting over run with weeds. I had Ear worms bad last year.

 

[Sonny580]

Although I plant my onions in a hilled row to keep them up out of soggy soil I keep the dirt pulled up around them so as not to get sunburned. When at the maturing stage, I stop and let them push themselves to the top. They are supposed to get around 2-1/2" 3"+ in size. As you can see in the picture that's pretty well what I get. Perfect size for one person when making whatever.

I've found Beets seem to do better in a hilled row too, keeping them up out of soggy soil at times. I tried 2 different plantings ans they did better in the hilled row. I replanted in the hilled row friends had just pulled from. Stirred in some triple 13 and planted seeds right before a nice soaking rain. They did very well. Actually, the best Beets I ever grew overall, since I managed to keep the Deer from eating the tops off. On the first round some got pretty good sized as my friends were tied up doing something else for about a week. A couple rains made a huge difference in size. I was afraid they would be getting woody at that stage but they said they weren't. The 5 gallon bucket was set beside them to give an idea how large they were.

I go for and grow 2 pound onions! lol! Dont take as many to fill the freeze driers that way plus the big ones have better texture and flavor. Just my findings.
Gotta do whatever works for you! my ground is dry so I have to keep things low.
Never had an onion sunburn here yet!

 

[Sonny580]

Plant your corn early. Ear worms as I understand it is a later season threat. Last year I re-planted my corn late due to the first stand getting over run with weeds. I had Ear worms bad last year.

Plant rr corn!! lol! worms dont like it!

 

[RB5]

Getting ready to plant my cool weather crops this week. Kale, Lettuce, Spinach, arugula, onions, some herbs.

I am also very excited to try my hand at potatoes again this year. I do not have lots of space so I am going to give the vertical growing a shot. You plant the potatoes in the ground and as they grow up you place boxes around them and backfill the boxes with mulch of some kind. I plan on using shredded straw. I guess it tricks the potato into thinking that part of the stem is still underground and it will grow potatoes. I did it once and I was very impressed with the amount of potatoes I got from it. There are tons of websites that describe this method online.
Happy Spring Y'all!

My dad used to plant red potatoes in sandy soil. He would pile more soil and pine needles around them. Seemed ti work well. He always had a bunch of canned potatoes in mason jars every year.

 

[kenmbz]

My dad used to plant red potatoes in sandy soil. He would pile more soil and pine needles around them. Seemed ti work well. He always had a bunch of canned potatoes in mason jars every year.

In Western MA at my uncles, the soil was very rocky with high potato yields, so using sandy soil makes sense.

 

[Oaktree]

for onions you GOTTA take dirt AWAY from them as the grow or they wont get very big.--- at least not here! They are a surface crop. For beets I never hill them either. The main thing with them is to get them spaced apart since they take up a lot of room in the row. 6" spacing for both onions and beets work for me.

Yeah, learned that the hard way with onions. Got plenty of leaves but no bulb until I stopped hilling them. Like you said, beets seem to grow half above, half below ground. Always just leave them that way, they get plenty big.

 

[1Mech]

I got tired of all the weeds in the sweet corn. And I admit that I'm not overly energetic about weeding beyond running a tiller between the rows when it's getting started.

So two years ago I tried some round-up ready sweet corn. WOW! Sure was neat driving the tractor through it and spraying glyphosate on my corn and watching the weeds burn down. Prettiest, cleanest stand of corn that I've ever had.

But the taste just didn't come close to Silver King or Queen or the other common sweet hybrids.

Not sure exactly what I'll plant this year, but I know I am going to have weeds in my corn again!

Don't think I would want to eat much after spraying a dose of Round-Up. I lay down a thick layer of leaves, preferably oak between my rows, works quite well at keeping the weeds down, moisture in, then after harvest, it gets turned under for natural organic matter. Great soil builder too.

 

[1Mech]

I've used BT, it's an organic spray for worms & caterpillars. I use it on sweet corn & cabbage and does a good job on both. On sweet corn it's put on when ears form and silk just starts to appear. Then every 7-10 days unless you get a rain. It can be bought at places like TSC, Rural King, or any place that handles garden supplies. Proper name is Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticide.

Spinosad also works, sometimes I combine them for the corn silks and cabbage.

 

[Sonny580]

Don't think I would want to eat much after spraying a dose of Round-Up. I lay down a thick layer of leaves, preferably oak between my rows, works quite well at keeping the weeds down, moisture in, then after harvest, it gets turned under for natural organic matter. Great soil builder too.

cant use any type of ground cover here since it harbors voles, mice , bugs, and disease and makes the ground stay cold , nasty and slimy

 

[DJ54]

Spinosad also works, sometimes I combine them for the corn silks and cabbage.

I use that too for other pests like Colorado Potato Beetles.