WELCOME TO OUR CORNFIELD 2010
Dimond Hill Farm Fresh Corn Hand Picked Daily....
In April we plow and prep our fields for planting. It is during this time we are deciding what varieties to plant and how many acres of each planting. This decision is typically based on soil temperatures, seed vigor (strength of growth), and expected harvest days. This year our first planting was on April 27th, we planted 1 acre of frisky, 1 acre of temptation and 1 acre of karisma. These varieties do well cool soils and have excellent seed vigor for cooler soils, say in the spring. This year the seeds took 12 days to germinate and population of plants that took or germinated was around 85 %. The left picture above shows that population on June 1st, 2010. The right picture was taken on June 20 th just three weeks later and the corn had doubled in size and was getting really green. At this stage it is extremely hard to estimate seed germination the top growth has really taken over.
This photo was taken on July 5th. As you can see the tassel had set pollen and the ears of corn have silked out, or have started to developed. The very top of the corn plant is the male reproductive part and when it turns brown, corn is right around the corner. Here we see that it is golden colored and just starting to release pollen onto the silk of the ears. We where super excited to see this on the 5th for it means corn is just a week or two away.
Above Jane Presby, farm owner and operator, is walking the field. We walk our filed daily and check for several indicators. One indicator is when the corn is really ready the corn silk and the tassel itself are dried up. When the silk is dry the kernels have ripened and are ready to fill out. Here Jane was also looking for insect damage and levels of insect damage so that we can monitor and control the loss of crop due to that damage. The left picture was taken on July 17th the first day we picked corn and as you can see the tassel is dark brown and the silk is so dry it is almost black. The left hand side Jane is picking our first ear of the season, what a sight. We love our first day of corn and we hope that one day you will wake up with us at 5:30 am and pick with us, we sure need the help sometimes.
SOME SAY DIMOND HILL FARM CORN IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD...
WE JUST TRY HARD TO DO WELL...
