After a month, the first planting of corn is about a foot (30cm) high and doing fine. There are two varieties this year, Earlivee, an “old fashioned corn taste” (su) type, and Bon Appetit, a sweeter (se) type, only about 800′ of each. Corn every year is a battle all its own, the corn and me against the raccoons. The coons are my biggest (as in, size and intellect) garden foe, and unfortunately, they usually win. A couple of years ago, I invested in electric fence and a solar-powered controller. This only kept them at bay for a while. I still haven’t figured out how they got past it…I’ll have another chance to find out this year. No fence, positively no corn (maybe a few ears, literally, out of a couple of thousand). I grow only enough to eat and to include a dozen or so in the CSA shares. With the amount of sweet corn out there, and the ridiculously rock bottom prices when it’s in season, selling corn at the market or stand hasn’t seemed worth it. At the very least, it’s fun to watch it grow!
I’ve got a couple hundred corn plants in my little backyard city plot–I know my time and materials will never make it financially worthwhile, but…then again…the flavor of just picked corn is worth it. I exanded the corn patch from the protection of the fenced yard into the back dirt alley, so we’ll see if the critters get to it back there…do you have opossums where you are? If so, do they go after the corn?