I was just saying on another thread that I love little local stores. One near me has a great deal on flats of the 4-6 packs. And the big 2-packs of strawberries.
I don’t do much veggie gardening, but even I can try various things with their prices.
They used to be able to order LE Cooke trees, too! They have a lot of bulk items farmers need, and I got 3 lbs of Calcium nitrate scooped into an old bag of something else for cents for a lb, lol. And they advise, too. I love them.
Steve,
We had terrible luck with our first corn. It’s been so cold and flooded much of the seed rotted.
Here’s a pic of some of it. Maybe you can barely make out the rows.
I have purchased ‘Bonnie’ starts as the end of the ‘picked over veggie sections at my fav. Nursery. I only bought them when things that I really wanted died. Either not enough water or too much. But, back on point, the Bonnie starts were never successful for me and I could never figure out why. I would usually chuck a couple of green peppers, large black eggplant and a couple of beefsteak type tomatoes. All produced poorly. So back to planting my own seeds for exactly what I want and timed in growing so they are successful… The other alternative I have discovered are the veg tomatoes from Territorial. They are good and they work. When they arrive too early (always). You have to keep them healthy but once in the ground they take off and produce well. This years I purchased green zebra from them along with one beefsteak and two ‘sweet pea’ red currant tomatoes. They are all healthy an cannot wait to jump into my raised beds and grow to four to five feet tall. There is a huge hitch to buying these plants, however, they are very expensive, including the shipping. For one person, I don’t feel that guilty.
I’m famous for maintaining beautiful vegetable gardens for my family and infamous for my slovenly housekeeping- both my wife and my father’s 2nd wife have mentioned this- about 40 years apart.
The corn is an important ingredient in stew that I make in 2.5 gallon batches and then freeze up in quart containers to use for a month of lunches. I just like the idea of eating as much of my own food as possible.
Space is at a premium on my property given I can turn a $10 peach into a $300 commodity in about 3 years. I want the perfect spread of corn plants for max productivity.
That said, it probably would be more practical just to do what I used to do and spread a bunch of seed (that I save from the previous year because I only like antique sweet corn) and then make the patch perfect by the process of elimination. I got into the habit of starting it in containers so I can start it while it’s still too cool to put in the soil.
But if I have to trap out chipmunks it ends up being more work putting it straight into the ground anyway- they eat the seeds but not the young plants.
Best I ever did to save space with corn was to do it in three rows about 3 feet apart and to stagger it every 2 weeks or so. The way I was taught was 4 rows 4 feet apart. No matter what, it’s a space killer for someone with a smaller lot like me. Growing up, the first crop was usually the corn from the cow corn field where my uncle would put a bag of sweet corn seed from Agway into the hopper before filling it with the cow corn seed so that the area nearest to the gate had sweet corn. It was then followed by comparatively smaller plantings in backyard gardens. So I was brought up to be a “corn snob” who scoffed at supermarket corn. The corn at the supermarket isn’t as bland as I remember it being growing up, so I don’t bother using up space on corn. Maybe the GMO helps corn to keep its sugars longer or something, or maybe I just don’t taste the difference anymore.
Gmo corn doesn’t necessarily retain more sugar, it’s just that the breeders use the latest best sugary corn to add some genes for gmo. I’ve grown gmo and regular sweet corn. Most of the new stuff is super sweet and is slower to turn starchy.
This year I am growing mostly American Dream, non GMO.
I’m a corn snob for sure. Taking the sweet corn from the field to the table is too long for me.
We all have our own expressions of snobbery. When I first tasted Illinois Extra Sweet almost 50 years ago I thought all that sugar was the greatest, but now don’t even like SE types. When I lived in NYC, I would only buy sweet corn from the Amish farmers to get what I consider to be sweet corn that has corn flavor.
It isn’t that I don’t like any of the sugary types, I just haven’t found anything I like as much as Golden Bantam cooked right after picking. I also grow an heirloom white- something Evergreen, I think. I have trouble remembering because I don’t buy it, just save an ear or 2 from every harvest after letting it dry out on the stalk. Someone reminded me of the name last year.
I still find Bonnie 6 packs at a local farm supply store in North Miss. Bought a few today. $3.50 per pack.
I forgot you had such a low-tech agrarian spirit, Alan, but now that you say this I remember similar things you’ve said before (about deer meat or something like that.)
I’ve transplanted corn on a few occasions, too, just for the sake of seed saving, so I can get an extra early start so it will pollinate before I have to worry about it crossing with neighbors’ corn. It seemed to transplant fine on each occasion.
Is inbreeding depression not an issues just saving seed from an ear or two, year after year, Alan? I’ve always tried to save seed from at least 30 stalks from plantings of at least 200 stalks. That’s what some “expert” advice somewhere led me to believe was necessary. Mostly I want to save about that much anyway, so it’s no special trouble, but I’ve wondered about inbreeding depression and when it would be noticeable.
My local Lowes (SW MS) has the six packs too. They also carry the larger single plants @ the same price of $3.50.
I’ll defend my corn snobbery 
Here in corn country we ate all kinds of it. Once upon a time, you used to see cars with open trunks backed up to corn fields to get roasting ears. Field corn is pretty decent when picked just right. I’ve eaten my share of it, when we used to rent some row crop acreage.
The bad thing about field corn is that it turns starchy fast. That’s the real advantage of the newer Sh2 stuff. To me, it’s not so much the sugar but delay of turning to starch. I hate sweet corn which even mildly sticks to your teeth. Same as eating a mushy apple to me.
I usually start my plants from seeds. This is not because I can’t buy 4pack, or 6 pack plants . Frankly, Menards, local hardware store such as True Value for example ,and some grocery stores all carry popular veggies 4/6pack plants for$1.49 to 1.99. Herbs cost a bit more. But they don’t sale the cultivar that I want, so buy seeds and start plants my own make a lot more sense. Bonnie’s plants are expensive but they are way bigger than those are in 4packs. You may get fruits couple of weeks earlier by buy Bonnie plants. Also, Home Depot had half price Bonnie plants sale couple weeks ago. At $1.99 apiece, It is not bad price for the size of the plant.
I didn’t know you grow tomatoes commercially Mark… Now that I know, do you spray it with anything? My tomatoes usually give me a great first crop in early/mid July, but then leaf spotting (septoria?) starts and the plants become week and I get a poor second crop in Aug/Sep. I read that chlorothalonyl or copper can be used; have you tried them before? Anything else that’s better/safer? Note: I never sprayed my tomatoes before, but I try some good cultural practices.
Yup this one is the main thing for me. I grow too many rare or hard to find cultivars.
Ahmad,
We do spray our tomatoes. Mostly with Chlorothalonil but this year I bought some Manzate to try. We get so much rain and humidity here that early blight is a problem.
I thought inbreeding depression was a psychological disorder that resulted from several generations of marriages between cousins.
At any rate, with corn, I think it probably takes quite a few generations of it to suffer from lack of diversity. If that begins to happen, I will simply order some more seed of the original strain from a seedhouse. It’s not important enough for me to grow much corn just to sustain the quality of the seed.
Corn is not a major staple in my diet- I just like to eat some “real” sweet corn a few times during summer and freeze enough to help flavor about 8 gallons of stew. It is just one of about 8 legumes and whole grains in my recipe- the least nutritious but pretty tasty.
Another way to avoid inbreeding depression is to plant seed from multiple years together. Even if you’re not saving enough genetic diversity each year you can add years together to get more diversity. But maybe the potential for problems is exaggerated.
I apply copper soap until first tomatoes are a couple weeks from ripening and then stop. Some continue bearing and stay healthy longer than others. Country Taste and Sungold usually keep bearing well until the first frost. I pick the green, just beginning to ripen toms, the day before and have nice tomatoes into Dec.
Last year, I had a volunteer with potato leaves (must be from one of my Brandywine hybrids) pop up that wasn’t bothered by all the cool wet weather we had, and provided a nice crop of Brandywine type fruit into the first days of fall- best fruit I ever got from a volunteer by far. I’m continuing that strain and have a huge plant from its seeds with tomatoes already forming on it that I started on the last week of Feb. It grew much faster than any other variety of tomato I started at the same time, and I only grow vigorous indeterminates.
I’ve used clorathalinal as well but the copper soap seems to work as well.
How sensitive are tomatoes to Copper? I was leaning towards using it vs chlorothalonyl as it is less toxic (to us), but hesitated due to potential phytotoxicity…
Based on Alan’s recommendation, I tried Brandyboy last year and it was a hit. This year I’ll try Country Taste as well. I was already growing Sungold, Carmen (red pepper) and Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry. All those I get going from seed. Luckily, we also have a local guy who sells heirloom tomato plants every spring. My favorites from him are Northern Lights (similar to Hillbilly but better IMO), Christopher Columbus (good paste tomato also really good fresh) and Bloody Butcher (really early, great tomato taste but small - between a ping pong ball and a racquetball.) Also going to get Krimzon Lee mild hot pepper and various melons going from seed as well as Cornito Rossi and Cornito Giallo sweet pepper. They are similar to Carmen but smaller and possibly more prolific, though Carmen is prolific as it is.
