growing corn in containers

[Lee M-S]

I tried 1/2" wide copper tubing; that didn't work. I later read that you need at least a 4-6" wide band of copper to keep out snails and slugs.

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[terracore]

I guess I'll find out if it works. I'm using the 1" tape and they say to put the second one about an inch away, effectively give you a 3" span. Apparently the snails can step over a 1" copper but then they land on the second one and change their mind.

"Does copper really work?" There are youtube videos showing slugs being reluctant to cross copper, and there are also videos showing no aversion to copper at all. If copper does work, it's likely dependent on the quality of the copper tape. Also I've read that copper oxidizes pretty rapidly and the tape needs to be polished or replaced to be effective.

[terracore]

The corn-in-a-container experiment was a success. We ate our first ear of corn last night and the ear was perfect. 100% pollination, and each kernel sweet and juicy.

The one lesson I learned was to over plant the container. I was aiming for 8-9 stalks in the container and over planted a few seeds but a few seeds didn't germinate and a few took a really long time, so not all the corn was at the same stage of growth. Considering it was a winter crop and it was dark, cold, and rainy (for Hawaii) for half it's growth I'm very pleased with the results.

[MarkP]

How did it get pollinated?

Also what type/size of pots?

[terracore]

It was a ~20 inch wide cheap plastic container from Home Depot.

Corn pollinates itself with the help of the wind and gravity (the male flowers (the tassels) are at the top of the plant, the silk is the female flower). Corn needs to grow closely to other corn for pollination, apparently not a problem when you have ~9 plants in one small container so long as they are flowering together.

I water the container daily on the days there isn't significant rain. I fertilize weekly. I did a lot of research on others' experiments with container corn and speculated that most of the failures were due to not enough plant density (those who complained of not enough kernels) or failure to thrive (not enough fertilizer... come on, 9 corn plants in a tiny container for a plant well known to need turbo charged amounts of nitrogen). On my next experiment I plan to continue the weekly fertilizing but possibly double the amount.

In other news, our container potatoes also seem to be doing very well. We haven't harvested yet but did some careful "digging around" with fingers to assess the potato development. Will have more info in a few weeks.

[EightFingers]

How much does an ear of corn cost "home-grown". How's the taste?
That said, I bet the regular corn pests are not in Hawaii yet.

[terracore]

The taste of the corn was without compare. Corn tastes best straight off the plant. Most supermarket corn "on the cob" are varieties that were bred for only one thing: shelf life. Not flavor. Can't speculate on the cost as that is amortized over the course of many seasons. If the pot and dirt cost $20 and we get 10 ears out of it the first season it's $2.00/ear. But there are 4-6 corn seasons a year. Hopefully the pot lasts a few years. In theory the cost should go down to pennies per ear. We have a lot of experiments in our future using the abundant natural fertilizer our farm produces.

We didn't have any problems with pests (except for our donkey who ate all the leaves that grew through the fence) but pests can be a problem here. There are some cultivars with tight husks that have been developed specifically for Hawaii's climate and pests: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/HGV-4.pdf

[MarkP]

So you didn't do anything to promote pollination? I thought that a plot like 10' x 10' was considered small and likely to get imperfect pollination so a pot would be a real challenge. I have wondered whether using a leaf blower to create a breeze from plants on the edge towards the center and vice versa would be a good thing. However it sounds like that was not necessary in your case.

[terracore]

A couple of times when it looked like pollen was coming from the tassels I shook the plants a bit, but I think the wind did most of the work. The plants in the pot are pretty close quarters, the pollen doesn't have to go far.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I bet the regular corn pests are not in Hawaii yet.

That may be.
But I've grown corn both here and on Maui and I can assure you, the irregular corn pests are troublesome enough.

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