Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

In a message dated 11/10/2008 6:15:06 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net writes:


> >No matter which way I plant
> the rows, or whether I plant in hills vs. rows or how much I hill it up,
> I have lodging issues, generally caused by storms, which I can't
> control.  The thought occurs to me, however, that perhaps I can make the
> plants stronger.
> 


Bev, beware of what you read on corn sites that are written by and for 
agribusiness.  They know as much about raising organic corn as the person who 
oils 
the giant weaving machinery knows about knitting.

I've had not one stalk lodge in the past three years.  Before that it was 
quite a problem.  One factor is that our storms have been milder.  But mainly 
I 
think it is the increasing fertility of my corn field.  Starting four years 
ago 
I began putting more manure on the corn and this last year after I'd hilled 
up the rows leaving trough 30" wide and ten inches deep between rows, I 
filled 
the entire space with raw stable litter.   The stalks were massive and the 
anchor roots were ten inches across.

Heritage OP corn had been selected for centuries when mild, slow acting, 
organic fertilizer was all that was available.  New hybrids and sweetcorn 
hybrids 
are bred specifically for concentrated inorganic salts, they don't respond so 
well in organic plantings.  Likewise, organic fertilizer on old OP corn makes 
it grow spindly and weak.