If I wasn't so bummed out about finding all of my corn lying on the ground this morning I would laugh at this. It appears that the storm we had last night along with the rain we have been experiencing all week made the ground so muddy that when a wind came up the corn couldn't support itself and the wind blew it down. But the way it fell looks like those crop circles you hear about over in the UK. Since I only have a small patch (30 x 15) I decided to run string along the rows and prop the downed corn up along it for support. Hopefully as it dries up around here the dirt will harden up and the corn will stay up. I will try to hill the dirt up around the base of the corn later in the week. I was really disappointed because it was going so well and I was proud of the fact that I had done succession planting and everything. This really brought it home how difficult it must have been for our forefathers to survive. At least I won't starve from this crop failure. Everything else is doing well. My sunflowers, which are taller didn't get hurt but I think it is because they are up against the fence and the way our storms come would have just pushed them up against the fence.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), July 29, 2000

Answers

Hi Colleen, Don't worry it happens every summer with sweet corn. Do nothing and you'll be suprized--first sunny day they will stand up like a solder at attention and be just fine (most of the time).

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), July 29, 2000.

Wow, Joel that is amazing. I figured they were goners and whatever little I could salvage I would be that much ahead. You made my day by letting me know that all is not lost. Course if I hadn't propped them up and suddenly they were all standing up again, I think I would have really believed my corn patch had been visited by little green men.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), July 29, 2000.

My corn is still so short that I'd have to step on it to get it to fall over!!! Good luck to both of you. I will be buying corn at the market this year it seems...glad I'm not gonna starve from this crop failure either!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), July 29, 2000.

Colleen -- don't laugh about those crop circles -- my uncle had one (in corn-growing country in Southern Ontario) about five years ago. Freaked him out so bad that he considered selling up. It was getting really serious until my cousin decided to put an end to it, and sat up all night for a few nights. Turns out a couple of the neighborhood kids who thought my uncle was a bit of an old hermit (can't say I disagree with them!) thought it might be funny to drive the old guy over the edge -- and were out there with a log on a rope!!!

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), July 29, 2000.

My wife planted our patch early this year. It all came in full matured , but the ears were runty. Reminded of that little corn that comes in Chinese food. I'm gonna try another planting for fall harvest.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 31, 2000.

Colleen, This same thing used to happen to my father's corn crop every year. Every year he and I would be out there standing it up with rope and metal poles. Two years ago on our homestead here in Ky the corn fell down. Our there were my husband and I standing the corn back up. It turned out the coons brought their whole family in not long after and devoured nearly the whole crop. All we got was one small meal out of the whole thing! Needless to say we've given up on the corn this year, we'll buy it from the local farmers as a treat! Good Luck!

-- Emily (bellyacresfarm@kyk.net), July 31, 2000.

Colleen, hadn't been to the forum for a few days & read your post to see if I should be on the lookout for little green men in the usa--or what! Sorry about your corn, but I like your sense of humor!!!!!!!!!! I truely needed a good laugh today! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), July 31, 2000.

Sonda, I always try to keep laughing at events that happen in life as long as they are not that serious. I figure you can't sweat the small stuff. It just makes you a stinky mess if the big stuff happens. I would rather laugh at life than cry. I find it keeps me healthy. But I have to admit I said a phooeey or two when I saw my corn patch. I even took pictures of it because it was kind of interesting how it fell. Just like little soldiers.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), July 31, 2000.

Dear Colleen, Did your corn fall in a spiral or just in a straight line?

-- Sarah Taylor (bptaylor@ccrtc.com), August 01, 2000.

Corn will stand up after high winds better than it did after the landlord's bull ran through ours a couple years ago (he was really rough on my sunflower house), or the herd of calves, large calves, did this year. The miraculous thing is, is thatboth times they tip- toed through the peppers and didn't hurt even one of them.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 01, 2000.

We had the same thing happen to us last week and ran string along the rows to prop it up. We also thought it was wind and rain but it only affected about 20% of our garden. My neighbor who plants acres of corn came over and pulled up a stock. There wasn't much of a root system on the plant. He thought we had root worm. The worms eat the roots so they don't have enough structure to hold up the plant. He uses a chemical to take care of the problem in his fields.

-- Jay (jay.sikkink@co.stearns.mn.us), August 01, 2000.

Colleen, I plant my corn into trenches about 4-5 inches deep. I run water into the trenches to get them to germinate, and put lengths of chicken wire over the top to protect the young corn plants from the birds. When the corn reaches the top of the trench, it's safe from the birds, and then when its about 4-5 inches above the trench I fill the trench back in with the dirt on the edges. The corn roots in the extra soil, and gives it a bit more secure footing.

-- Sadge (firesignfarm@hotmail.com), August 03, 2000.