A Coronach to the Corn | Chickens in the Road

Jul
26

Oh, corn.

My corn. How I carefully dropped your seeds. How I interspersed your promise with pole bean seeds to twine upon your stalks.

Because everyone needs a friend.

Oh, corn, how I spotted your first green shoots. How I eagerly watched you grow. How I enjoyed the view of your strong stalks burgeoning forth. How I anticipated the first taste of your sweetness.

And then came the storm yesterday afternoon.

Thunder broke hard right over our heads. Rain pounded, brutal in its random violence.

Oh, corn, how I loved you! And how, oh how, I will miss you.

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35 Responses
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7-26
1:16
am

Oh no!!! Your poor corn!

SarahKoski

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7-26
4:32
am

Oh my stars! I’ve never seen that happen before. Can you stand it up and stake it somehow?

Melinda

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7-26
4:39
am

Hasn’t this summer’s weather been interesting? And obviously destructive. Gotta wonder.

hugs from PA
connie

connie

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7-26
4:43
am

Oh no! Will it perk back up? Does this happen often there? I have never seen that before either. How dissappointing!!

Runningtrails-Sheryl

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7-26
5:02
am

We are in water restrictions and a drought here in Texas – Iwould have loved the rain storm – especially since we continue to climb to 100. It is much worse in some places than others but I just read where they have a hotline set up to call and tell if your neighbor is not following the rules. They send you a fine up to 1000.

jane

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7-26
5:12
am

it may straighten back up

connie

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7-26
5:46
am

I’ve had this happen to my corn. It won’t look beautiful again but it should straighten up.

Emily

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7-26
5:54
am

It’s sprinkling here this morning. Come on down!! Sorry about your corn though. It’ll probably stand back up and be okay.

Lynda Dunham-Watkins

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7-26
6:11
am

The corn should stand back up to some extent if soil not totally washed away from the roots….also the beans will search for the sun and help pull it back up…we corn in our family garden and my husband gently eased them back up after the soil dryed some….

PS…you must’ve had a strong straight line gust of wind across your hill…
PS…have you ever thought of block planting the rows in the other direction..but not on a steep hill..only slight hill…the forth, catches the third, the third catches the second and the first…well, it’s on its own…

B. Ruth

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7-26
6:19
am

hopefully all is not lost and it can stand again. Just don’t let the raccoons get it.

Linda

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7-26
6:41
am

I’m sad too. Mu tomatoes got obliterated! The pigs are gonna be eating good.

missy

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7-26
6:52
am

Oh no! This happened to me every time I tried to grow corn!! Stand it back up and firm the ground around it with your feet. Saved a bunch that way many times – well, if another storm doesn’t come through soon it will work.

wvhomecanner

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7-26
6:58
am

My goodness! I am so sorry about this.

Sheila Bergeron

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7-26
6:58
am

Suzanne, my husband says your corn will straighten back up and be ok, but he says you should not plant pole beans to run up on it, because that will take the corn down for sure. It can’t bear all that weight. Also, if you don’t have some kind of protection for it, your dear friends, the raccoons, will wait for it to ripen, then they will come in and demolish it in one night. We place a radio in the patch to play at night, and that has kept them out so far. So, good luck, all is not lost!

Imogene Burdette

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7-26
6:59
am

You can stand it back up carefully, and pile some soil around the base of each one. Really! We have done that before in our garden, and it works. Takes some time, and boy do you get muddy, but it is worth it.

Kathryn

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7-26
7:25
am

We are going to try to stand it back up today. I’ll report on how it works out!

Suzanne

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7-26
7:46
am

That happened to our a couple of weeks ago and it all stood back up after a few days.

norma

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7-26
8:47
am

Have no fear sometimes they will come back up, mine were laid over about 2 weeks ago from a bad storm and now about 80% of it is back up and thriving!

Maureen

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7-26
8:56
am

Oh Suzanne! I am so sorry! I can’t wait to find out if your corn was salvageable. This has been some summer!

Kayis

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7-26
9:02
am

Boy, that sucks! But, by the looks of things some of your reader have had this happen and it sounds like there is hope.

Claudia W.

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7-26
9:09
am

It should stand back up as long as the stalk is not broken off. They may not straighten completely, but it will enough that you should still get your corn. A few days worth of sun does wonders!

monica

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7-26
9:13
am

We grow it together:
Beans,corn and squash have been grown together for years….they compliment each other..called the three sister method…
My grandparents, in NC, came from the Indians that grew it this way for generations, corn is natures nutritional (pyramid) pole…
Beans add nitrogen back to the soil for the next crop…which corn deplinishes..
Squash or and pumpkins add shade around roots and deter some rodents…

PS…how else would all those morning glories spread thru out the fields, up the corn stalks..beautiful…

B. Ruth

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7-26
9:29
am

Farm life. How quickly things can change. But I do believe it is not a total disaster…as long as its not shredded by hail or completely scorched by drought corn can be pretty hardy. Let us hope. Because corn is delicious.

Angie

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7-26
9:32
am

Oh, I’m sorry! My corn never got above 3 feet tall. Not enough water.

Christy O

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7-26
10:49
am

I never got the garden I was planning in this year. I am glad now, because our weather has been just awful. Thunder, lightening and rain just about every day. I wish I could send some of the rain to Texas!!!

trish

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7-26
12:02
pm

Don’t say goodbye to the corn just yet. Farmboy’s corn did the exact same thing two weeks ago when a horrendous wind blew through. We gave them a couple days and they’re back tall as ever!

Lovin a Farmboy

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7-26
12:44
pm

I encourage you to stand it up again. In central Illinois we often get wind storms. Ours was leaning over like that early in the growing season, smaller stalks. I just hoed the dirt back up around the base and they did straighten. Here’s hoping you can do it. We planted pumpkins to grow beneath the corn so now it is a jungle out there. The pumpkins went crazy. Blessings.

Karen/Abiga

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7-26
1:08
pm

So sorry about the corn—hope standing it up works.
That must have been some storm!

Estella

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7-26
1:09
pm

Keeping my fingers crossed for your corn in your pretty garden.

Just a thought: could you put stakes/posts at the end of the rows and string a line, like a clothes line, and tie the stalks to it? It doesn’t have to be super strong because it’s just to keep them upright, since they can still hold their own weight… (my inventors mind wants to make a variation on clothes pins, with a big loop/hole to accomodate the stalks, lol.)

Lily

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7-26
3:56
pm

whoops.

shannon

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7-26
5:13
pm

What is with the weather up there this year?

Roger

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7-26
8:54
pm

see… this is a perfect example of how my garden has been growing all season. I get so close and some natural disaster comes and takes it away. I can almost hear the March of THe sugar Plum fairy playing as I imagine the slugs that came and ate every last one of my radishes, and potatoes.
I am sorry about your corn :(

Lisa

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7-26
9:15
pm

I’ve had that happen to our corn a few years back. It didn’t hurt it at all. It bounced back up and the corn was fine! I too love corn!

Angela

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7-27
7:20
am

It’s sad when that happens. Almost like losing a friend!

Kathi

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7-27
1:36
pm

That has happened to ours twice this year and it stood back up on it’s own after a couple of days. Not sure how it does it but it does.

KentuckyFarmGirl

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