Tassel Ear

Back in june, the corn was just barely knee-high and the tassels had formed and were dusty with pollen. I despaired as the stalks had not yet formed ears. Corn is one of the main things that I count on each year, so naturally I was feeling pretty gloomy.

It was that darned cool and dry spring that we had had here. I contemplated pulling up all the stalks to hurriedly plant another crop of something. I pondered the situation for a couple of days and in the end, I just decided to leave them in and see what would happen, as the weather had suddenly changed and become quite warm.
Within a week ears began to form and I was delighted...too bad that a wind storm blew up then with periods of intermittent rain....but the main thing was that the wind gusted and was continuous.

The ears were about as long as my hand and some of them actually had silks...by the time the wind and rain had stopped the pollen was mostly gone. I shook the little stalks and saw no pollen fly off the tassels. --I was back to walking about with a long face.

I checked the ears from time to time but didn't feel much inside the husks...and finally I just stopped with all that wishing and checking. One day I saw that odd occurrence that one sees with corn sometimes--tassels with ripe kernels: A condition called, "Tassel Ear" in english, believe.


How does tassel Ear come to be?
Well, a corn plant has both male and female "flowers". In the beginning, both flowers are bi-sexual and as the plants develops the male part of the female flowers and the female part of the male flowers on a tassel just quit...aborting the mission, as it were. The result is a tassel ear. ("tassel" (male) and "ear" (female). As far as I know, what causes this condition occur is not known to scientists.

My plant was located at the northern corner the western bed edge. This may one day be of significance. Why? Well, I don't know for sure, but the prevailing wind in may and june is from the west--the side of the little "field". Generally speaking, if the wind is blowing from the west the silks in the ears of the most western row could get less pollen from the neighbouring plants because the pollen would have to travel against the wind to reach the ears on the western border. Of course the wind here isn't constantly blowing from one direction all of the time. This could account for the incomplete fertilization of some of the ears, but does it have anything at all to do with this tassel ear phenomenon? I have no idea. There simply isn't enough known about this .

I don't know what it all means, but the combination of the hormones and certain weather conditions could ultimately be the determining factors...or not.
It is very curious--sort of like a botanical ectopic pregnancy in a far-fetched kind of way, in that the "cob" and kernel formation is occurring out of the normal place.

Personally, I find these sorts of problems interesting to contemplate. Too bad that I do not have more scientific knowledge sitting between my ears.

Anyway, these kernels are so apparent that surely the jackdaws and other birds see them and be attracted...so I remove these tassel ears the very day that their presence is noted. A closer look:


My fears turned out to be largely unfounded, as from the 49 plants that I planted, I have now harvested 79 ears to date. This isn't too bad, but I have had better harvests in the past. Each of my plants have between 2 and 4 ears, but the smaller ears have not been fertilized...and not surprisingly, some adult ears have gaps in the kernels, indicating that some of the silks had not been fertilized with pollen grains.

Oké then, enough of the semi-esoterica and down to brass taxes now: The sweetcorn harvest this year. To date, I have harvested some seventy-nine ears from the forty-nine plants that I have planted in the square "mini-field"; not the best of percentages, but not the worst either. It could have been far worse; and in fact, I expected it to be.
The harvesting is almost over now--there may be a couple of useable ears left yet to harvest, but absolutely no more than that. There are a number of totally unfertilized ears on the stalks, so they will go into the compost bin.

Let me show you one of the big hauls--perhaps the biggest. Here's a big trug-full of roasting ears. I think this was 33 or 34 ears.


Here are three examples of the ears:


Normally, I pick the ears as I am leaving for home and then race-off to get home as quickly as possible. This time though, I did all the husking there at the lottie so that I could throw the husks directly into the compost bin and chop it finely.
I always have a roll of "clean" plastic dust bin bags in the shed, so i put the cobs into that for transport. You can see the empty husks in that plastic trug, behind the bags.


Once home, the blanching and kernel removal got underway. I ate some fresh on the cob, but the majority was processed for freezing and will be eaten during the course of the coming year.


The work did not stop here with the corn, No siree--there were other things to process--like plums and toms. I added what you see in the pic with what I already had at home and it kept me up all night.


I was particularly pleased with the plum harvest. Do you remember that bizarre-looking white netting I used to wrap the fullest of the tree's branches? Well, these pristine plums are part of the harvest of that branch(s).
You have to admit--they look delicious. I have waited until they were at the peak of ripeness, so the jam was nice and sweet. I do grind up the skins right along with the flesh and include that in my jams because I like the slight tartness of the skin combined with the sweetness of the flesh.


Yes, they were gorgeous--fat and juicy and sweet.
I am including a pic of the new sort of French climbing bean that I am trying this year. The Cobra. It is a heavy producer of very long beans that grow thickly in trusses. They are firm and hold up well when frozen (I have already experimented with that, last year when I borrowed a couple of hands' full from a fellow member).
I left the paring knife visible so that you can get an idea of the size. The pan to the left already has the majority of the beans cut and ready for cooking.


Well then, this posting was primarily about corn, but the other harvested veg looked good and was worthy of mention. You can see how the fruit and veg piles up during this time of year and to stay on top of it I have to do the processing as frequently as the harvesting (and weather) dictates or allows.
The freezer and pantry are almost full now (the pantry is already over-full actually, and some jars have to be kept in other places). Meanwhile the harvesting continues, both for me and for the Food Bank. The end is in sight, though and fall is in the air.

 

Well Sjoerd, you've started my mouth to watering. Your produce lokks so delicious.
Glad you did harvest some corn, it looks great. This from a Nebraska "corn belt" kid. We sure have some good corn eatin in the summer round these parts
Those plums look yummers, wish I had one here... right now...

 

Everything looks awesome. I found a different way to process corn last year and it works very well. I cut the raw corn off the cob and then cook it just until it turns the "clear" color of the corn. add a little sugar and salt (depending on how sweet the corn already is) cool immediately, bag or box it and freeze.

The original recipe called for 4 dzn ears of corn( approx 5 qrts of corn) 1/2 c sugar and 1T.salt, bring to a boil, cook for 5 min and remove from heat. cool and pack in bags or boxes in quantity size you would serve. Freeze.

this was much less mess than the boil first and cut off the cobs method.

 

Sojerd you did it again, it is always so delightful to see your harvest ...... makes me want to run to my mini farm and plant all those beautiful yummies!

 

hush your mouth sjoerd!!!!!!!!! we got such a late start, i'm so looking forward to fall coming in late late late, too!

awesome looking corn there. we're facing similar situations here, but the ears are finally filling out. we have had those ear tassels every once in awhile. very strange!

we've always frozen our corn, but we have found one variety that cans beautifully, Red Miracle. it's still not a stable seed yet....am saving the true seed every year till it is. it stays crunchy when canned, never goes to mush!

those beans look wonderful too. i'm going to have to check out that variety.

the plums are gorgeous! like the basket too!

 

looks good sjoerd,

wish i had netted our plumbs now, left it a day too late and the squirrels had eaten them all

well live and learn

 

My oh my! All those lovely veggies and plums too!
Your harvest looks better than anything you can find in stores.

 

Wonderful Sjoerd! Every time I read one of your posts my mind wanders to how I can make my OWN garden better. Now that I have a freezer and a large pantry I am planning to have a fantastic garden next year! Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Not much experience with corn growing, so Ive never seen the tassel issue. That's interesting though.
Congrats on your great haul of plums and veggies.

 

Thanks KAY--That was quite a compliment coming from a Corn-belt Kid! Yes, there were oodles of plums, enough for the wasps, birds AND me!

It's time to eat rite NOW, TONI-- Are ya gonna bring yer own bib, or do you want me top provide those for you?
Yes, that tassel ear is an odd thing. I don't have it every single year...but now and then, Sometimes they can look just like a real corn cob full of kernels.
Those big plums were just about ready to split-open from ripeness.

Thanks CAROLYN-- that sounds like an interesting way of doing your corn. I shall have to think about that for next year. It can be quite messy getting all those little kernels all over your hands. I have never thought about cutting them off beforehand. Thanks for that tip.

KK--Thanks for your nice words, mate.

hee hee hee....alright BUNKIE--I'll hursh my mouth!Interesting about the Red Miracle corn.
Good luck with the 'Cobra" beans.

Thank you, DAN-- Oh, what a shame that those pesky squirrels got your plums. That is terrible.

Thank you CHERYL-- I agree with you. I think the biggest difference is with the toms, the store bought ones taste like water by comparison.

Well NETTY-- what a really moving compliment! That was just such a nice thing to say. Thank you so much.
It sounds like you have the space for big harvests now, so good luck!

Thanks for your congrats, 4-G--Glad you liked the posting this time.

 

Shucks, no more corn to husk. I don't know how you find time to post with all that harvesting going on. Your hard work has certainly paid you big dividends that you will enjoy all winter. It also generous of you to share your harvest with the food bank.

 

Clever remark, Gail!
You are right, I have not had much time to post lately and its all because of the harvesting and processing that I've been doing.

I'm glad that you liked the posting this time.
I am pleased with the harvests so far, but the season has still been very strange.

 

Hi Sjoerd,
the seasons surely have been strange,..we had a mild but very wet and windy summer,..not great for potatoes and the like.

Very interesting information about the "Tassel Ear",..i have seen it but didn't have a name for it,..the adjoining farm field to the Victorian Estate grows Corn,..not modified stuff either,..natural like yours.

Lovely to see those healthy plums and that you got to them before the Wasps,..mmmm i like Plum Jam.

Yes the Scientific reason for the "Tassel Ear",..is as mind boggling as the "Blind Shoots" on Rose Bushes,..very similar in fact.

 

Hello Philip-- You are right about that, in fact I really had to hustle to get my spuds out of the ground in time before they began to rot. Were I garden is very wet and low, as you might expect. So, the water table isn't very far beneath the surface--and when there is too much rain, things het a bit moist.
There are drainage lines under the ground and take the excess water away to a nearby canal, but still, it is quite moist in periods of extended heavy rains.
I know about the "blind shoots" on roses, but haven't seen them on my one and only rose plant. I find these sorts of things quite curious and enjoy reading about them.