I planted my Rainbow Mix carrots today, and set out the tomato plants. Turns out I have 2 SuperSauce plants and 2 Roma plants that survived, along with 12 Viva Italia from Burpee, so we'll see what happens
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Hilling corn is a practice done in Florida, to make the corn able to stand up to hurricanes -- might even be done all over the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic coast, for all I know. I found out it also helps them stand up to the high winds and hard storms in Georgia.
What you do is, when the corn is about 1 foot tall, you cultivate the earth between rows, then pull it up with a hoe and bury the bottom 3 to 4 inches of the stalks all along the row. Kind of like when you bury potato stems.
Then when the corn is about 2 to 2 1/2 feet tall, you do it again. It discourages tillering and promotes the growth of more adventitious roots, so the corn is more firmly anchored in the ground. Hilling also makes a sort of catch basin for rain in the spaces between the rows, and more water is trapped in the hills themselves. So your corn sort of self-waters.
Just before you hill is also a perfect time to side-dress the corn with nitrogen to encourage growth -- you bury the fertilizer as you hill each row.
I remembered Daddy having us do that, and we never lost corn to thunderstorms. I did an experiment the first year I did it, and hilled one plot while not hilling the other. The hilled plot stood up to driving rain a lot better, was more productive, and had sturdier stalks and tons of adventitious roots.
At the end of the season, I pull up the corn stalks, cut them into small chunks with pruners, and scatter them in the corn plots. Then I use my home made harrow (the chain link fence and 3 paving stones) to knock the hills down some. After the leaves fall, we rake them onto the plots and let them sit over the winter, then mulch them up with the lawnmower.
So I hill every year. It's a little more work, but in the end it's worth it.
What you do is, when the corn is about 1 foot tall, you cultivate the earth between rows, then pull it up with a hoe and bury the bottom 3 to 4 inches of the stalks all along the row. Kind of like when you bury potato stems.
Then when the corn is about 2 to 2 1/2 feet tall, you do it again. It discourages tillering and promotes the growth of more adventitious roots, so the corn is more firmly anchored in the ground. Hilling also makes a sort of catch basin for rain in the spaces between the rows, and more water is trapped in the hills themselves. So your corn sort of self-waters.
Just before you hill is also a perfect time to side-dress the corn with nitrogen to encourage growth -- you bury the fertilizer as you hill each row.
I remembered Daddy having us do that, and we never lost corn to thunderstorms. I did an experiment the first year I did it, and hilled one plot while not hilling the other. The hilled plot stood up to driving rain a lot better, was more productive, and had sturdier stalks and tons of adventitious roots.
At the end of the season, I pull up the corn stalks, cut them into small chunks with pruners, and scatter them in the corn plots. Then I use my home made harrow (the chain link fence and 3 paving stones) to knock the hills down some. After the leaves fall, we rake them onto the plots and let them sit over the winter, then mulch them up with the lawnmower.
So I hill every year. It's a little more work, but in the end it's worth it.
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