[guitarmama]

We picked 3 ears of corn today. Dh put them on the grill, and when we took off the husks it looked like someone had already eaten the corn.

: What happened? The ears were nice and big, but it looks like most of the kernels didn't develop. Anyone know what causes this?

 

[annekevdbroek]

Were the ears ready to be picked? Have you had other corn that was ready? There is some means of determining this by looking at the silk at the top (should be starting to dry out a bit and dark brown near the ear, I think). Do you have corn borers? These buggies get inside the ear and make themselves dinner.

I grew corn this year for the first time and of 50 plants got about 3 ears..... I've since learned that corn can sometimes be challenging. We had terrible weather, drought, corn borers, etc. Those 3 ears were delicious though!

 

[guitarmama]

The silk was brown, so I think it was ready. It didn't look like bugs had gotten to it; it just looked like the kernels didn't form.

Sorry to hear about your crop. Better luck next year.

 

[4lilfarmers]

this may be totally stupid...but was it an open-pollinated variety that wasn't pollinated...?? or would it not mature to the point that it looked like a ripe ear of corn.

 

[guitarmama]

I don't know what open-pollinated means, but I think you might be on to something. The ears were mature and there were some kernels, but they were sparse. So maybe it didn't get pollinated properly, is that what you're thinking? Hm, I wonder why that would happen.

 

[blastomom]

Sounds like they didn't get pollinated properly. How big a plot did you have planted with corn? Poor pollination often happens if you just plant a couple of long rows--the pollen from the tassles gets blown out and away from the silks below and the kernals can't form properly. In a small garden it helps to plant corn in say, a square of 4x4 stalks rather than 2 rows of 8 or one long row of 16. You can also hand pollinate (there were a couple of threads about that recently) to ensure better yield. Sorry about your harvest, What a let-down when you were looking forward to yummy grilled home-grown sweet corn

 

[CarrieMF]

You can check the corn prior to picking by splitting open the husks a bit to check and see. Sometimes if they're picked early they will look like that.