They mocked me when I said corn

I'm new to gardening this year. My family and friends said Corn couldn't be grown in a container. I have 5 stalks that have just matured and will be eating the fruits of my labor. Okay, so it's a dwarf variety, but the ears are a beautiful blue. I did alot of container gardening this year. I couldn't decide where to plant a garden until July...

I tried alot of companion planting and am very happy with the results. In with this corn is zuc I planted way late. There were morning glories, but the bunnies or groundhog ate them.

Container gardening is the best, and companion planting is brilliant, but if you have limited space ... I go to the Farmer's Market. You'll only be able to have fresh corn two or three times - but they will be two or three blissful and delicious dinners!

Why couldn't you have corn in a container? If it's large enough for the roots and you take care of it, it should be prolific - in theory anyway. *grin*

I have 14 plants in containers lining the driveway right now. The corn is about waist high and the neighbors think I'm slightly insane, and overly creative, all at one time. They actually look really cool, too.

Well, being thought slightly insane and overly creative are two pluses I hadn't considered. Looking cool counts, too. You guys just have a lot more sun than we do!

This message was edited Sep 12, 2008 11:18 AM

Hi All
I used Corn in some of my containers and had lots of fun with it.
I used Japonica Stripped Maize corn and it really started to show it's color after we had some hail. Here is the early photo. The corn is at the back.

And here is a bit later.

The corn got huge and tomorrow I will take a photo as I moved it to hide a down spout. I found that the spooling(sp?) that it did showed color the best. The pink and white showed up big time so I will do it again but it sure needs a big pot!
Ann

I like the flower and vegetable combo.

LOL @ "they mocked me when I said corn." You have proven that you are only limited by your imagination.

I nominate this the best DG thread title of the year! :o)

The only problem I can see with it would be pollination. But there are ways around that and you certainly made it work.

The corn with the other container plants is very imaginative. I like it!

I recently brought a bit of my offsite garden home to the apartment with a container of potatoes. I can't wait to get the ridiculous letter from the apartment office saying that they are a fire hazard or something. ;o) My neighbors are hooked on my zucchini bread, though, so I think they've got my back.

Happy gardening!

indy_v
Great Idea with the potatoes, my mom in law used to use tires stacked up with straw and said they were the cleanest ones she ever grew!

Here is the how big the corn got, polination not a problem as I interfered(sp?) I have some nice cobs on here but they are decorative corn not the eating kind.
Ann

Prettiest corn I ever saw - and we have a LOT of it here in my state.

annabelle52 wish I would have thought of that. I would let the stalks dry with the corn in place and peel it back so the colors show and use it for Halloween deco. Use a block of Hay and lots of mums and pumpkins.... How cool...shirleyt

Shirleyt
Hi I will take a couple of photos of the cobs for you. They seem a bit smaller than regular corn and some cobs are covered with pink husks and others are the usual greenish. Maybe that will disignate the colors. I'll let you know.
Ann

I wonder what happened with kagst's blue corn?

Annabell: How did you 'interfere' with the pollination? My corn has male tassels on top but no indication for the start of actual corns. What did you do, if you don't mind my asking?

Hastur
Hi
I just took a male tassel from the top and brushed it on the showing tassels of the corn bits below. Kind of helping the nature part. It worked fairly well as I did get some nice colors.
Here is a selection from what I am drying at the moment. You can see the cobs that didn't get a good polination as not all the corn developed on the cob. Or that is what I think happened. Maybe there is someone out there who knows better.
Ann

Annabell: Thank you. Just straightforward manual pollination. I can do that.

My corn is showing silk as of yesterday, so I think I may have to follow your lead and pollinate, just to get some. I doubt it will be as gorgeous as yours is, but we are eating it anyway. *grin*

what fun ...I really must do that next season...shirleyt

I started a new job and dropped off the earth for a bit. :)
I must have been very, very lucky. I only had five stalks and I got ears off all of them without hand pollinating them. Ironically I was too excited about it and ended up letting the corn dry out unintentionally. So I'll have my own table decorations this year for thanksgiving, and I guess I can plant the kernals next year?.

Having abandoned my yard since the end of August (the job) I was surprised to find cilantro, hot peppers, marigolds, petunias, impatients and borage still alive. We've been in the 30's for most nights for a month!

I stumbled upon this thread ...

Ann - Your vegetable container garden is amazing! WOW! I just love it!

If you were to grow veggies and herbs in a container, what is your secret to getting such great growth? Should certain plants be added together in a container?

Fun thread! I agree Amazingly pretty container Ann! Love your "kitty" too.

In a way, I'm not too surprised at corn in a container. Having grown up farming, it seemed corn actually had a shallower root system. As long as moisture and nutrients are provided... the results are above! I think more corn will be grown in containers next year. LOL

The gardening bug has spread to my neighbor, who recently announced that she's going to grow some vegetables on her balcony next summer. When I asked her which ones, she jokingly included corn.

Yes you can!

Yes you can grow corn, I said. And she now has a picture of Ann's container corn waiting for her in her email. **big smiles**

Beckygardener, Podster and Indy_v
Thanks folks, I enjoyed growing them and did the photos because I thought it was kinda neat, it's nice to know others agree!
Now that I've emptied the containers - boy do the corn ever have roots! I had to use my tree pruners to cut off at soil level and a sharp shovel to cut them out of the potting soil, I think my neighbors were laughing their heads off but it worked. I fed them too as I had some of the osimicoat( sp?) in the container. I found that as they got biger and if it was hot here I had trouble keeping up with the water for them and moved them into a shader spot.
I definatly will be growing them in containers next year. I already have my eye on the seeds from Seed Savers.
Ann

I'm glad I wasn't the only one "silly" enough to try growing corn in containers. (YUM!) 18 stalks in an Earthbox and no problems with pollination. Started them in my greenhouse, too, so I had ears fairly early. Definitely going to do this again next year. I do like the idea of mixing them with flowers; those containers looked great! Now if I can just get those roots out of my EB.....