[JRinPA]

Hey kath. It would be nice if hadn't laid over but that's nature and I learned some things about corn. I might hill them today. I have nice finished compost at home, but I didn't feel like hauling it over there yesterday evening. I was in fact moving the piles last evening, but the wheelbarrow felt so heavy moving 10 feet and dumping. I didn't feel like shoveling that into and out of the truck. I need to make a hitch so I can pull a full wheelbarrow down the road.

There are some cold compost/refuse bins to dig through at the comm garden, but they're not managed well. Digging through the pile there, I find lots of huge grubs, grape beetle or green june bug size.

I put them back up yesterday morning with a modified florida weave. There are a few reasons I didn't let them try to right themselves.
1.They dominoed down the row and are already tasseling, VT stage.
2. I need the rows cleared by the tomatoes!
3. They are planted tight, double seeded every 10" or single every 5", 18" in the doubles, 30" between. That is a far cry from the spacing in the videos I watched with 3+ft between rows and laid down across the rows.
4. Ground pollination of ears would be iffy in such a small plot, let alone rodent damage of formed ears on the ground. I often get two good cobs per stalk, but won't on the ground.
5. I have radishes red beets and parsnips between the double rows that I don't want to smother.

It seemed to work well, and really wasn't that hard for these rows once I got a system down. Still, ten rows took a couple hours. What can I say, it was nice out. Out of all the downed corn, I only lost a handful snapped at the base. We'll see how the weather plays out the next couple weeks. At some point I may well cut them loose again. Some okra was laid over too but I won't worry about that.

1. tall stake at either end
2. run one length of string, fairly taut. For my 5ft+ with tassels formed it was about 3 ft high.
3. tie off a second string at the upwind side, cut it at 10-12 ft
4. rotate up one or two stalks at a time and twist that 10 ft tag end for 3 wraps, trying to keep it snug. If I twisted 3 CW, then the time next 3 CCW, the string doesn't even twist up too badly. Add string as necessary with sheet bend.
5. Tie off at the end. I went back and added extra stakes in the middle where sagging occurred.

Hopefully it works out. My rain gauge there was pegged to the overflow at 5"+, and the block of corn and okra is below the outlet of the frog pond overflow as well.

Last pic: I harvested all the big, ready first and second cobs from the first block the day before the storm. There are still a lot of second cobs there. The mature corn didn't suffer so visibly compared to the tasseling blocks; more snapped off but less blown over.