I mentioned in an earlier post that we had a cool spell, about 58F to 60F degrees there for a few days. Plus with the rains, I left things well enough alone in the gardens. So there were a lot of weeds that needed to be hoed/pulled. Although it took almost an hour in just the corn patch, the sun was not too hot for the project. The super wet soil made it easy to get at the weeds. Plus, I pulled the grass/weeds around the bed, as well as beating back the blackberry vines. Now the temp is 80, so that's a good degree for corn growth. But, it will make the soil difficult to pull weeds in just a few days, so I hope I got the majority.
Some of the corn is close to 18 inches tall, while the younger ones are three to six inches tall. Perhaps that's good? It might give us some later season corn. The distraction PVC set up across the south side of the garden is about 18 inches tall, so that gives you a good visual for the growth.
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| Corn patch angle from SW |
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| Corn patch from West side |
The one big factor is the inconsistent temps. If it stayed in the mid 70s to 80s all the time, the corn would be taller and fuller. But, at least it is starting to fill out even with the cooler temps. Almost half of the past month has been in the 60s and low 70s. Below is the list of "highs" in the Portland area for the past month since planting. Fingers Crossed that July highs are consistently above 75F degrees but less than 90s because then I'm too hot!
| 81° 05/31/19 80° 06/01/19 80° 06/02/19 77° 06/03/19 79° 06/04/19 66° 06/05/19 63° 06/06/19 65° 06/07/19 76° 06/08/19 84° 06/09/19 | 92° 06/10/19 97° 06/11/19 98° 06/12/19 79° 06/13/19 77° 06/14/19 81° 06/15/19 81° 06/16/19 71° 06/17/19 69° 06/18/19 70° 06/19/19 | 69° 06/20/19 71° 06/21/19 73° 06/22/19 71° 06/23/19 74° 06/24/19 70° 06/25/19 69° 06/26/19 66° 06/27/19 78° 06/28/19 80° 06/29/19 |
So, I did a bit of looking back. Actually, this June (2019) was 8 degrees warmer (on average) than last year. When, looking at the growth, the corn is about 8 inches taller than this time last year. Last year, I planted on May 28, two days earlier. The other thing I am noticing on just about every stalk of corn are these extra "branches" coming out of the base of the stalk. I have read that these are called tillers. Unless the corn is damaged (which can cause tillers), it is an indication that the conditions/nutrients are excellent for growing corn, and that there is no need to cut them back. So I won't. I'll try to get some decent photos of these tillers. A couple of stalks have three, but most have two tillers. I have also noticed that about 20% of the stalks are quite thick already.
