And he gave it for his opinion, 'that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where one only grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together'.
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, 1726
We always struggle growing sweet corn here due to limited water which why we can't indulge sweet corn very much and always unlucky with timing! Sweet corn not that hard to grow up till the stage they are producing ears. At the moment they have tassle and silky ear, mother nature has other plan. That is the period of time heat waves come to visit and bring along 40+degree Celcius scorching those dear sweet corns interupting the process of mating. We tried succession sowing but to no avail. So this year, I decided to try sow sweet corn at the time we are going to enter end summer which is end of February. Hopefully sweet corn will be in time to produce before we have really cold weather.
While we were away, Ilhan get his hand dirty with sowing sweet corns, sunflower and soy bean. This is 'Ilhan veggie patch'. Sweet corn germination rate at Ilhan patch was 100% after about a week. Oh-ho a bit hesistant to ask Ilhan do some weeding on his patch, imagine lots of stomping there (dinosaur?). It only has been just over 2 weeks since Ilhan sowed seeds in this patch.
While we were away, Ilhan get his hand dirty with sowing sweet corns, sunflower and soy bean. This is 'Ilhan veggie patch'. Sweet corn germination rate at Ilhan patch was 100% after about a week. Oh-ho a bit hesistant to ask Ilhan do some weeding on his patch, imagine lots of stomping there (dinosaur?). It only has been just over 2 weeks since Ilhan sowed seeds in this patch.
Now this is my project in middle of February, growing sweet corn and soy bean. Not sure soy bean will produce but at least it can play a role as green manure. Found many self-sowed evening sun sunflower on this patch.
This patch is 'Lenay patch', my cousin transplanted self-sowed tomatoes to this patch and sowed some bush bean seeds.
Daikon planted in spring bolted, so Lenay & Ilhan try growing daikon end of summer at the other side of the backyard fence. Lenay direct sowed radish seeds all germinated. I was kind of surprise to see 3 rows with roughly about more than 30 seeds in a row of daikon seedlings when we returned from Melbourne. Lenay was happy when she saw the seedlings pop out in just 2 days. I worried what we are going to do with so many daikons if we successfully grow them this time around. Lenay promptly said bring them to veggie swaps weekly. If that happens we are going to be known as the daikon family.LOL.
Parsnip and carrot seedlings are popping out very fast this month.
Feels like second spring this time.
wah dah mula tanam jagung ya...bagusnya ada pembantu seperti ilhan hehe semoga mendapat hasil yang lumayan pada kali ini.
ReplyDeleteamazing what you produce.. I am learning a lot from you! How is that baby doing???
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to know that Ilhan enjoys gardening and he is very good at it too. Weeding may not be a good idea at this stage. :) Btw, did you received the seeds?
ReplyDeleteHope Ilhan is successful with his sweet corn
ReplyDeleteGardeners are an innovative breed aren't they? When one approach doesn't work they try something else. Let's hope the new plan proves successful.
ReplyDeleteThose parsley and carrot seedlings look so cute... like happy faces ;-D Enjoy your day!
ReplyDeleteMy sweet corns are flowering too, with new heads and their silky hairs coming up, so excited about them, my first time tanam jagung! I wish could have a garden helper like Ilhan or Lenay..:)
ReplyDeleteLooks like you have a great little gardener already :) My eldest ignores "her" patch (pot) and didn't even realise I've taken it over. The youngest loves helping to sow seeds then promptly walks all over the new sprouts...
ReplyDeleteHope your sweetcorn experiment works, it will be interesting to see.
I love that Jonathan Swift quote.:) Your corn is looking very good, 100% germination for corn is very good.
ReplyDeleteWow new beds and new plants. IIhan has certainly learned a lot from the mommy. I think he has green fingers like you, at least the seeds have 100% germination rate, my luck is only 20% :(
ReplyDeleteCikManggis~ Moga-moga dapat hasil lumayan. Sebab Ilhan yang bolot hasil jagung lepas. Mamapapa dan kakak langsung tak dapat rasa.
ReplyDeleteMom of M&Ms~We are very happy that Rayyan is recovering well and cheerful.
Kwee Peng~ Sweetcorn seedlings at this stage does look like a grass will be difficult for him to differentiate. I will email you about those seeds later.
Sue~Neglecting his sweet corn after mummy came back;-).
Mark~ The craving of fresh sweet corns motivater the gardener to come up with several gardener. Gardeners are natural researchers aren'they always problem solving.
Stephanie~The sights of seeds popping leaves are happy occasion.
p3chandan~Good Luck with you jagung!
Shaz~Looks like we share the same thing. Ilhan already ignoring his patch.
Mr. H~ Found the quote from one of the gardening books. Glad you like it. It was the first time I bought treated sweet corn seeds because I don't have any options without realising it. I was surprised to see how red the seeds were and worry it won't germinate.
Milka~Not your fault, just the seeds quality was the problem. High humidity can make seeds germination power to hilang and deteriorate easily.