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Subject: Re: corn stalks
From: pollinator@aol.comnospam (Dave Green)
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Date: Thu, 06 Jul 00 13:41:52
Message-ID: <MOD$000706.25821@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$000702.2733@rec.gardens.ecosystems>



From: Jeff Grace jgrace@shore.net

>Also, a secondary issue: I keep hearing vague comments that corn has
>special issues with regard to pollination. That you have to have both
>male/female plants, you have to hand-pollinate, etc. I have six stalks,
>and three of them are already have ears. Does anyone have the
>authoritative answer on this?
Corn has male and female flowers, not plants. The tassel is the male, and the
silk is the female. The silk is receptive to pollen when it is light green. It
is too late when it is brown and dry.

Pollen sheds from the tassel, and normally blows or falls from one plant to
another. With only six plants, you'd be wise to help this along, by shaking
the tassel over the silks of adjacent plants. In the sunshine you can see the
pollen fall. The pollen is fine dust, not the larger flower parts you may also
knock off.

You want to do this as soon as the tassels start to shed pollen, and early
in the day, before the pollen gets dry and perhaps heat kills it. The pollen
from one plant must go to another plant.

If you don't get good pollination, you'll have ears with only scattered
kernals.
In periods of still, dry weather, yields of corn can suffer greatly from poor
pollination. The window of opportunity is only a few days. An acquaintance who
retired here from Illinois used to own a charter helicopter service. Farmers
kept him busy during corn pollination, simply flying up and down the rows to
spread the pollen with the downwash from the chopper.

Pollinator@aol.com Dave Green Hemingway, SC USA
The Pollination Home Page: http://pollinator.com

Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm