Failed Attempts at Growing Corn & 1 Yellow Tomato

I’ve heard that corn always tastes best right after it is harvested. But I think it’s hard to grow because of how it pollinates. You need lots of sun and lots of corn plants. I’d love to think the square foot garden method works for every vegetable and fruit, but it probably doesn’t. For success at growing corn, I would need to fill each square with corn. Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury. Cam and I had planned to build more SFG boxes, but with the arrival of Luca, we don’t currently have the time.

To compensate, I tried another experiment. (Yep, I love experimenting). This time, however, I think this will be a failed experiment. I had a few small stalks of corn, so I transplanted them into the same SFG box. Two stalks per divided square. My hope was that this was close enough for the pollination to work.

Below: The corn after it was first transplanted. See how healthy and happy it looks! So green!

Unfortunately, this experiment is doomed. A week later, the corn isn’t getting any taller and its leaves are beginning to yellow. It’s rather sad to see my corn slowly die… (See below)

This time, I won't pull it out like I did the cucumbers. I'm going to let it die on its own. And if it miraculously survives, I'll be ecstatic. But I'm not going to get my hopes up. I'll continue to water, but I'm going to think it's a lost cause.

Another rather depressing fact: I had planted seeds in empty squares in box # 2, and the corn seedlings are also yellowing. They aren't getting any bigger, and I have no idea what to do. I was planning to transplant them after Cam builds a new box, but I doubt that they will survive much longer.

Below: The baby corn seedlings

Well on the bright side, I planted two rows of corn at my parents’ house. Since my dad has a green thumb, I’m hoping that I can harvest fresh corn by the end of the summer. Let’s cross our fingers! He’s using a raised bed, but the beds are long enough for rows. I’ll keep you updated on that development as it comes! (I believe corn is traditionally grown in rows.)

I’ll end on a positive note. After impatiently waiting, one of my cherry tomatoes has started to turn yellow! I’m hoping that more tomatoes will follow its path and start turning. What joy it will be when I can pick cherry and grape tomatoes for my salads!

Above: The new yellow tomato! Sorry for the blurriness. It was a windy day!