2 Things. Corn and Tomatoe's

I have a couple questions. First the Corn.

On the farm, we had field corn. We did a crop rotation. (my dad did)
One year Corn, next year something else.
I have a small garden and I've marked off an area to plant Sweet Corn.
Next year, what do I plant in that same area? I don't see me planting Winter Wheat, Oats, Soy Beans, or something along those lines that my father planted on acres of land.

Isn't it possible to just put fertelizer back on the same spot and plant Sweet Corn again next year?

Tomatoe's........
I read a thing that told me to cut the "Suckers" from the plant. The "Suckers" are located between the leaves. Oh boy! There are a lot of leaves and I have no idea where those Suckers are. LOL

Can somebody explain to me exactly where they are so I can cut them out? A picture would be better. I'm more visual. To think all these years I've just grown them and didn't know about Suckers. Hummmmm

Also, do these suckers come on the plant during the growing season? during the sprouting? all the time? sometimes?

Helpless but not hopeless in NB :o)
Darrell

Hi Darrel....I'll take on the tomato question
Tomato suckers grow between the branches and the main stem: http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/images/tomatosuckers.gif
They can easily be pinched off the plant.

Some people feel it's necessary to remove them and others don't (some strongly feel it makes a difference to the ripening of the crop and others disagree).

I personally have grown corn in the same location for a couple of years in my garden (in a city garden you don't have many choices as to where a tall growing plant can be planted).




This message was edited Mar 10, 2005 10:30 AM

When I lived back east there was a point to removing suckers, to let the sun get at the 'maters better -

out here in the desert sun we leave them all to protect the tomatos from the direct rays. They actually get sunburned ~Blooms

This was the thread I was thinking about when I typed the above: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/434673

A couple of people have suggested growing two plants (same variety) and removing suckers on one and not the other and comparing whether or not it makes a difference.

This message was edited Mar 10, 2005 11:26 AM

There are also two types of suckers:

What is a sucker? One type comes out from the ground line and these are called root suckers, and should all be pulled off. Then at the intersection of the leaf and stem a sucker will grow. This looks just like another little plant and can be pinched out. As the tomato plant gets about 12-14 inches tall, it will ordinarily develop two heads, like two big plants at the top. These you leave, because at the junction of these two top plants the first bud cluster will be formed.

Thanks Lily and Bloom.
I appreciate you both.
Darrell

I'll jump in for the corn question. There are several reasons to rotate corn in your garden if you can. The corn depletes the soil of nutrients and the pests that you have one year may be wintering over or ready to hatch for the next year. (corn borer) Then the horrible fungus thing that grows on corn, will get worse if you keep putting corn in the same place. I'm not a great splainer, so maybe someone else can put this better. Peas would be a good crop to follow corn.

Brenda

I think you did an excellent job Brenda (I was afraid that was going to be the answer). ;)

I never thought of that and it makes perfect sense.
Not so sure I want to plant Pea's though. Good Lord knows I love em, but that would be a lot of Peas. LOL
The area I'm growing the corn in is 1,152 sqare feet.
(I'm going to try a road side stand to make a little money for the plant habbit I seem to have aquired) :)
I'm open for any suggestions.
Thanks
Darrell

Potatoes, beans, carrots, anything but corn.

Got it. Thanks again. :)

but peas and beans will fix nitrogen which will help return nutrients to the soil. Corn is a very heavy feeder.

Thanks jagonjune
I have a couple acres here to work with but, 3/4 of it is woods. I wish I had more room to plant stuff. I'm affraid to call somebody and ask them how much they would charge me to cut some of this down. I could maybe make up part of the cost in the wood by burning it in the winter in the wood burner rather than buying it, and maybe make a part of it by selling more stuff by the road side. I don't know..........
If I sell any of this corn this year by the road side, I'll be able to tell if people are interested. If they are, then I might just do that.
I'm planting 5 rows of strawberries that are 24 feet long and 3 rows of red raspberries that are 24 feet long. I hope to sell them next year along with some vegetables. I hope to be able to keep enlarging my garden area to make a few extra bucks.

Regarding crop rotation: You can divide your vegetables into roughly three categories:

Root crops (beet, carrot, leek, onion, garlic, potato, turnip, parsley, celery, spinach, Swiss chard;

Cabbage family: broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, kale, kohlrabi, arugula, mizuna;

"Other" crops, which I show as "L": beans, corn, cukes, lettuce, pea, pepper, squash, endive, tomato.

In actual practice, you can usually plant tomatoes in the same place year after year, if you make sure the nutrients aren't depeleted.

So using that chart, I divide my beds into "R", "L", and "C". The best rotation is 3 or even 4 years, but sometimes I just do 2.

I can't grow corn or beans here, so can't comment on that.

This is information from my idol, Eliot Coleman. He used to have a TV show and I adored him. (My husband would answer the phone during the show and say, "Sorry, she's busy with Eliot". ) He has a terrific book useful for us Canadians: Four Season Harvest. His four seasons work in Maine, but maybe not much further north!

EC's partner, Barbara Damrosch, is also worth idolizing, and has written a number of excellent books. She was more the flower person while he specialized in veggies.