Our ragtag lot of corn ranging from less than a metre high to about 1.6 metres.

I’m not talking about patterns or shapes here – just venting a little frustration about the corn plants, because they’re doing it again! Several of them happily started sporting tassels and wasting pollen when there were NO cobs and silks in sight, and now that some silks are finally making their demure appearance, there’s NO pollen! (I think the rain from last weekend “helped” in that respect, too…)

Here you go – one wasted tassel that came out before there was even a hint of a cob anywhere!

Why does this happen? Is it our crazy weather that throws the plants out of sync? Too much/too little rain, or too much heat from the moderately hazy skies? I have no idea if the plants are responding to some signal from nature that sends the tassels out too early. Or perhaps I have poor timing or we don’t have the best climate for growing corn, because this is corn deja vu all over again. I know I lamented about the same things when growing the Red Aztec corn and white corn over the last few years.

And here you see the silks up close – long, slender, bristly and sticky – just waiting for pollen to fall from the tassels overhead. What? They’ve already discarded all their pollen? (I checked) Oh no. :(

This is quite upsetting because several of the white corn plants are looking strong and healthy – and they are the ones acting prematurely. Sigh. This means I’m going to have to plant progressively if we want a good crop of corn. Heck, I’d settle for a simple harvest of corn! I reckon if I sow a few sets of seeds about a week apart, the oldest ones will likely be sacrificial ones in terms of the tassels, but hopefully their cobs will be pollinated by the younger plants. This strategy could work. It could…

This is what we should see more of – tassels and silks, like ebony and ivory, living together in harmony. I’ll settle for synchronicity.

So I guess I may have to resign myself to not getting my hopes up for this lot of plants. What a shame! Experiences like this make me appreciate what farmers go through, when bad weather or something unforeseen spoils their harvest, and hence their livelihood. However, unlike me, I’m sure they know how to manage the planting best.

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