growing corn

Turan wrote:Crowding might well be an issue, but it is well worth the try.  Prune/ fence/ trellis the cukes and tomats to stay out of the corn's spot. Force them to spill in other directions

Seeing as plants in your MM are doing well (so we know it is a good compost mix) go ahead and top dress with that.  Blood meal is just that, dried blood from butchering, it is available at most all garden nurseries as an organic fertilizer high in nitrogen.

Ok. Thank you.  I'm still a little nervous about pruning.  Particularly my tomato plants, which are the most important to me, at least this first year.  i bought and planted determinates.  I didn't know the difference 40 days ago.  Is it ok to prune them?  If so, I will need to read up on that.  I don't really know what's ok to take out and what's not, other than not taking out leaf stems with blooms on them.  All of the tomato and both squares of cucumbers have their own 6' piece of bamboo.  I have loosely fixed the main stem to them.  Do you have any experience using stakes?  I was wondering if I can also tie up some of the leaf stems to the stake to keep them from shading the corn  and actually some of the other veggies as well. I use that biodegradable stretchy vegetable tape.  I just don't want to fix the leaf stem to the stake and damage a part of the plant that would have otherwise produced fruit.

If by leaf stem you mean a big leaf coming from a branch, that leaf will not flower and give you fruit. It is safe to cut off if it is interfering with other things, and can be a good idea in order to maximize air flow and hopefully lessen disease susceptibility. I have used bamboo stakes to create a cage to fence in tomatoes and cukes. Give it horizontal rungs and just keep tucking the plants into their area. It is also ok to tie tomato stems to the bamboo, they are quite sturdy. Stringing indeterminate tomatoes works because they are so able to be tied to or wrapped by string and yet keep on growing and producing fruit.

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Turan wrote:If by leaf stem you mean a big leaf coming from a branch, that leaf will not flower and give you fruit.  It is safe to cut off if it is interfering with other things, and can be a good idea in order to maximize air flow and hopefully lessen disease susceptibility.  I have used bamboo stakes to create a cage to fence in tomatoes and cukes.  Give it horizontal rungs and just keep tucking the plants into their area.  It is also ok to tie tomato stems to the bamboo, they are quite sturdy.  Stringing indeterminate tomatoes works because they are so able to be tied to or wrapped by string and yet keep on growing and producing fruit.  

Good morning!  Thank you for helping.  What I meant by tying leaf stems up or out of the way, by attaching them to the bamboo stake was, tying some of the branches that have leaves on them that come off the main stem to the stake. I already have the main stems loosely tied to the bamboo. I wondered if I could also tie up the branches or arms that have leaves and blossoms that come off the main stem to the stake without damaging them???

brianj555 wrote:[ I wondered if I could also tie up the branches or arms that have leaves and blossoms that come off the main stem to the stake without damaging them???

Yes, they can be tied to a stake and thus kept contained to an area and up off the ground so they will stay healthier.

Like the top pic.  That branch that is sticking out? This isn't one that I would do that to, just using it as an example .  But could I tie that branch up to the stake like the way I have it on the bottom picture with my hand?  Would that damage it?

Even though we are taking about growing corn by staking my tomatoes away from them so the can properly grow. I'm going to start another thread about that.  I don't want to get this thread too far off topic.  Thank you Turan for your help.

Yes you can tie it to a stake. Also, see in the crotch of where that leaf leaves the main stem there is a new branch starting? I would pinch that branch (often called a sucker) off to help keep the plant within bounds. You can pinch that leaf off as well.

Ok.  You advised that it might be a good idea to top the corn off when compost since they are about to reach the vegetative stage.  Do you think it would be a good idea to go ahead and top off everything else that's near to producing fruit as well ? (Tom and cures)