Holy shit!
It worked. It worked fairly well. It worked so much better than it ought to! It was a dumb idea but it worked… so it’s not entirely dumb.
I went into the pig pen of weedy chaos and came back with 3 ears of perfect corn. I had no idea if they were ripe and wanted a simple test run. They were delicious!
The next day I went back and came back with 6 ears. Equally delicious. Yum!
I’ve already picked more for a third meal!
It looks like 2 ears per stalk and I know I had 23 before the weeds got deep enough to hide gorillas. I will probably get 40+/- ears from silly experiment. If I’d gotten full germination of all my seeds it would be a homesteading lottery win. I’d be firing up my canning equipment right now! But I’m not complaining, even if it’s just a half dozen meals that’s something.
It’s definitely not a conventional garden. For one thing it looks like shit. Then again I got to eat the results and they were delicious. As an experiment it’s a success. Call it proof of concept!
My pig fence is still shot but now my attitude has changed. I’ve an inkling what could be done. I lack money or time but now I have ideas and dreams!
I’d like to upgrade the fence and going to a “two pen” system. Put pigs in side A while corn and stuff grows in side B. Alternate the every year. Maybe that’ll help the “too rich to germinate” thing?
I’ve always wanted two pens for a bunch of other reasons. For example, backup in case the fence on one goes to shit or one of the pigs gets injured and has to be isolated. (That can happen.) Ha ha ha! Can you imagine the irony of an injured pig that’s put in a small corn patch to recover? My critters have great lives!
I’d like to set up the fence or gates or something so I can use my tractor without performing ballet level maneuvers. If I could take a straight shot at it without tight turns I could do miracles. I could run a disk back and forth in the pig nuked soil. Then plant TWICE as many seeds! Then run a 6’ brush-hog on the east and west boundary of the planted strip. Leave a 6 or eight foot wide strip in the middle that’s whatever corn can germinate and a bunch of mulch and of course… the damn weeds.
Or maybe I could have room to really try the sisters companion planting method. I need room to build hills with the bucket and I did learn that mulch works very well. Plus, I’m pretty sure whatever bean runners, corn stalks, and squash roots I don’t eat would be a tasty treat the next spring for the incoming piglets.
Don’t blame me for “thinking outside the box”. I’ve grown corn in the weirdest way possible but it shows signs of being viable.
A.C.
P.S. I’d also note that I used no fertilizer, no pesticides, and no watering. This was nothing like the roundup laden perfect rows you’ll see on a farm. But I did plant hybrids. For an annual like corn I don’t see why I shouldn’t go with the hybrid seed.