A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Silly Question

Last year was my first year on growing a vegetable garden. It did great! I had 5 different tomato plants including 1 cherry tomato plant, 2 cucumber plants, 1 watermelon plant, and 1 cantaloupe plant. All of them grew like crazy and produced lots of fruit/veggies. This year I am soooooo having another veggie garden! But this year I'm making a much bigger space and growing a lot more!! Now, I admit, I cheat with my plants. The soil I have ain't worth diddly-squat. My soil is made of two elements only, 50% clay and 50% rock. So I plant all my plants in big buckets and totes.

Now my Silly Question: .....Do you think it would be at all possible to plant corn in some BIG 'OL BUCKET or something along those lines? I's only curious.

More ?'s:
How soon can I start my garden? When can I start the seeds in my house? How do I know they are ready to be planted outside? How do I know what "zone" I'm in?

If it grows, it is a garden, no matter what you have to plant it in! I always have great luck with tomatoes in containers, peppers as well.

I have no idea on the corn though, but I bet it CAN be done!!! Someone is sure to come along with a way sooner or later.

As for your growing zone, check this out.

If you have the space, you can start plants in the next month. Make sure once they sprout you have plenty of light to give them so that they do not get leggy. I will probably be starting up some peppers soon. Want to give them a bit of a head start this year.

Welcome HyperFerret! It depends on what part of Arkansas you are in...I am on the line between zone 6b and 7a...I will not be starting any plants until late March, but with the mild winter we have had...most of the cold crop veggies can be started now, but things like peppers, tomatoes and melons you should wait awhile longer. What part of Arkansas are in? I'm in the north central part.

What you could do for your corn is....
Get several of those retangle totes/containers...
and then plant in them, in short rows and in a block pattern..
Then you'd still get pollenation..

Do you know what size tote's you'd get?
Depending on the size of tote, depends if
you could put one or two rows in the tote it's self too...

And do not forget..CORN IS A HEAVY FEEDER!!!!
So, don't forget the compost on it as a side dressing...
*or grow some edible peas' up the base of the stalks..*

If you do do this, please, I hope you post on it..
I would love to hear on how you did it, and maybe a picture or two if you can get some..
I think it would be alot of fun...

We're just going to have to get you into composting aren't we???
That stuff will loosen up clay and put nutrious food for your plants' between those rocks for you.
There's alot of info here about composting,
just do a forum search on it..

What you could do for your corn is....
Get several of those retangle totes/containers...
and then plant in them, in short rows and in a block pattern..
Then you'd still get pollenation..

Do you know what size tote's you'd get?
Depending on the size of tote, depends if
you could put one or two rows in the tote it's self too...

And do not forget..CORN IS A HEAVY FEEDER!!!!
So, don't forget the compost on it as a side dressing...
*or grow some edible peas' up the base of the stalks..*

If you do do this, please, I hope you post on it..
I would love to hear on how you did it, and maybe a picture or two if you can get some..
I think it would be alot of fun...

We're just going to have to get you into composting aren't we???
That stuff will loosen up clay and put nutritious food for your plants' between those rocks for you.
There's alot of info here about composting,
just do a forum search on it..

Okay, so I'm like a 7b. Alright, cool! So, ...um... what exactly does that mean? I live in Gravel Ridge or if you're not familiar with that then we'll just go with Jacksonville, close enough.

What are considered cold crops? I'm not 100% sure what compost is or how to come about it. But one reason I'm not fooling too much with my ground would be because I'm renting.

I'm definitely going to try the corn bit! I have medium sizeish totes from Walmart and then a couple of the biggest totes I found at Lowes. Do you think I can try growing just 4 stalks of corn? Two by two. Would that be enough for pollination? "CORN IS A HEAVY FEEDER!!!!" What dat mean? Grow some edible peas' up the base of the stalks??? Well, I don't know how this will all work but I'll post it! Oh and if I can get this to work and I get to post on it, you sooooo don't worry about pics. I'm a photoholic!

You know my Grandpa was an excellent gardener. He had much better land. He lived in Penn. and had HUGE gardens. I helped him in the garden every year we visited him. Only got to see him once a year. I remember how Grandpa and I would sit on the steps of his porch just talking and shucking corn. Lol, to this day, shucking corn actually relaxes me; I find it to be very calming. Through the years as I was growing up, I always admired his work in his gardens ...Though, I never did ask him how he did it. Now it's too late. I regret that so much.

Your growing zone will be fine for growing the corn..

And as for the totes, I would get at least 4 totes...

You have to have some kind of drainage in those totes though, so you have to drill holes in the bottom of it, in several places so no water sits.

And put them in a square or retangle shape, real close to each other..on the ground..

Then fill it with soil/dirt/compost....
You can probably get about 2 rows, on either side of the tote, and 4 or 5 in a row..
*so that might make it about 8 or 10 stalks per tote.. and with 4 totes, that would make about 32 or 40*ish* pre the 4 totes total..

Cold crops are like Cabbage, Peas, Kohlrabi,
Rutabaga, Cabbages, Broccoli, and Cauliflower... Gosh, I guess even Rhubarb can be considered a cold crop too...

Compost is taking kitchen scrap's, dead debris from the garden, like old corn stalks, or pea vines, or dead stalks from prennials, or annuals.. and grass clippings... all mixed together, and they heat up and render down and become a very rich nutritious dirt like consistancy, that you can add to not so fertile soil that will help break it up or loosen it up..
~~~>and if you're renting, you can still do compost in a garbage can with holes, set up on poles to be able to spin.. or by a purchased bin called a compost tumbler *if Google that you should find some pictures of what they look like and are moveable and transportable if you rent and leave that place to go to another..

Corn really needs alot of fertilizers during it's growing period to produce it's ears of corn... (lot's of nitrogen.. if you purchase a fertilizer, that would be the first number of the 3 numbers like a 20~8~6..or 10~10~10...)
growing edible peas up the stalks of the corn, will help the CORN, *not so much the pea* but pea's or legumes put nitrogen back into the soil.. so, if you have a heavy feeder that plant will love the extra nitro in the soil...

Both my parents and grandparents gardened..
*and to be honest, I wasn't all that interested in gardening until I was about 14 or 15, when I planted my first zinnia seeds..

what are these totes you're talking about?

Here\'s one example... Sterlite Tub...


Here\'s another kind.. ..
*the darker one is probably better for root protection against sunlight but is more expensive*

And you can make or buy something along this these lines, to move your planters'..
May need two or more for the bigger one's...
Wooden Plant Dolly\'s

thanks Weezie for the info. Have you actually planted stuff in those? That's what I keep my Christmas decorations in.

I have one yellow water loving lily in one Sterlite container..
It's over wintered up here for 3 years so far..
*imagine it will eventually over time,
crack and fall apart..* but so far so good..
Here's a picture of something similar..
That's held up quite well..

I just suggested the square or retangle shape to keep the shape of rows of corn would be.......
and have about 4 or 6 of those in rows or blocks and it would duplicate the garden process...

growing peas up the stalks would be a really good and convenient way to get nitrogen into the soil. Peas are a cold weather crop around here, so I'm not sure how well they would do in the heat, but if the corn is shading them they might do okay. And since the corn is feeding off of the peas so heavily, they might taste as good as they would just growing by themselves, but really you're just growing them for the corn. Also, planting some miniature pumpkins in with the corn would be a neat idea too. They aren't too heavy and they are a good companion plant with corn. Now even though you might put peas in with the corn, I would still keep an eye out and add compost, especially about halfway through the growing season.
Another cold weather crop is lettuce. I grow lettuce in a container(there are so many kinds) and it tastes SOOO much better than what you get at the store.