I like to try things that are a little bit beyond my ability. I’ve talked to many old timers about how to plant corn, but none of them told me not to till when it the ground was a bit wet. This results in small clumps of mud that turn into little sun baked bricks. I decided to try to break them up over several weeks with limited success. I’ve planted anyways and we will see what happens. Either way I learned a valuable lesson that I will never forget as long as I’m able to plant seeds.
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Chicken fajitas! HAHA
You should have plant more seeds per spot, like 3 or 4 seeds of corn, because you don't have the certain that just one seed will germinate.
Chicken fajitas…. lololol
I think you will fail with your peppers too. The jalapenos will polinate the green and red peppers and they will become hot. Happened several times to me
Stop eatin' m'corn!
I wouldnt sweat the tilling so much. That will be the least of your worries. Just keep plugging ahead.
I can't tell if you left the furrow open just for video purposes, but that corn won't grow well unless you have good seed-to-soil contact – this is why planters cover the seed trench up and then firm the soil around the seed (also keeps the chickens from eating it).
You're on the right track with fall tillage; the freeze/thaw cycle does a lot to loosen the top few inches of soil. I prefer not to work the ground at all if I can help it, but your soil type is very different. Just keep in mind that every time to stir dirt with iron, you let organic matter escape your soil in the form of CO2.
Not sure what type of beans you are interseeding, but if you have the right soil bacteria, they should help provide some nitrogen to the corn. A great first foray into farming!
We used to raise a garden in Missouri and Michigan. I have a Troy-built tiller that I used for preparing the garden. A rear tine tiller is much easier to use than a front tine tiller. I always planned our gardens so our crops were companion planted to use less space than if each group of plants were done separately. I also mulch the garden with newspaper and hay or straw to reduce the weeds. We always only planted one type of squash at a time or separated two kinds by the garden because squash will cross-pollinate and you can get some interesting fruits. Depending on what you plant and exactly where you are, you should be able to have crops almost all year by planting for the season. Warm weather, cold weather and hot weather.. Lettuce is planted a few seeds at a time spread over time so you will have a continuous harvest as lettuce doesn't store. I used to be able to get my hands on a book I bought that told which plants can be planted together and which don't like each other but I have moved several times and it is buried in a box somewhere. Also rotate the crops in the garden so different things are planted in the same area from one season to the next.
Fun fact: green, yellow, orange, and red peppers (assuming you mean bell peppers) are all the same thing, just at different stages of ripeness. Red is fully ripe, everything else is unripe.
Destin, before planting you had to break the clumps, this is not that hard because there are special gardening tools for that. However with clumps this big I feel like corn will still be able to grow.
You can plant 2 more rows with clumps broken into pieces and see which grows best just for the sake of experiment 🙂
And yeah, you are planting too late but it also depend on the amount of sunny days your corn is going to get. And be sure to get rid of the nearby plants because they are competing with your corn for resources under ground.
Good luck!
Is that Roundup ready corn? As lots have said chunky dirt doesn’t matter that much. Just wondering, where did you get your seed?
My question is did you obtain a soil analysis BEFORE you even broke ground? If you don't know the make up of the soil you are wasting time and energy. My credentials? Two decades in landscape management and construction.
Hey Destin! You're doing great! Please keep us up to date! We're here with you on your quest to learn! (SO MANY !!!'s)
"Farmer Every Day"
Be sure to cover the rows of seed after you plant them!
i like your farm videos
That is so cool. I'm about 4 generations removed from farming, but I really want to learn about growing food. This year I had a potted tomato plant. Nothing too impressive, but I wanted to do something. Hopefully I will have learned and do more next year.
The day one stops learning is the day they've died.
Lol, As soon as he said fajitas, I immediately thought of his chicken right before he mentioned his chicken.
Corn should be "knee high by the fourth of July"
Lol Destin doing farming? Use your engineering skills!
Inspiring
Corn will not pollinate properly in a single row.
haha chicken fajitas. niceee
3 sisters planting works great. The corn provides a pole for the beans (make sure you don't plant bush beans), the Beans put nitrogen into the soil so the corn doesn't completely deplete it and the squash (pumpkins, acorn, zuchini, butternut, etc.) have prickly leaves that deter any critters that would otherwise disturb your plants and pilfer all of your corn.
The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. – 1 Corinthians 3:8-9
I am jealous of your peppers, mine this year look pitiful. Last year mine really took off in the fall, so hoping for at least that again this year.
My tomatoes are going crazy though, driving the wife crazy with all the tomatoes I have sitting on window sills throughout the house.
I guess you just have to keep planting things until you find what works.
I've only been gardening a few years, but the thing I have found that helps the most is to not be a slave to the ideal vision you want to get to some day. Its easy to tank your garden by avoiding the tools we have available because they would make it cost-inefficient or you don't want to overuse fertilizer, etc. First you just have to get it to grow throwing whatever it takes at it, then next time around you can worry about moving towards the ideals a little more each year. My first year with tomatoes I had only a few plants, and I initially delayed putting pesticides on them, and it cost me. By the time I wised up, I had lost a lot of production. This year I've been able to avoid the pesticides, but thats because I planned in planting 10x the number of plants I did then. The bugs can have their share and there is still more for me than I can handle.
Failure is always an option.
I can certainly relate to this video. My wife and I are mid 30's and we just tried straw bale gardening for the first time. MASSIVE learning experience.
Get a recording of a coyote or fox out there.Or simply put them in a coop. And a string a stick and a pie pan will rid you of smaller birds. Of course if you het a hard rain you're screwed anyway. All the seed will wash away.
Why don't you cover it with soil/compost? You might still be able to save it.
1 you need more organic matter in your soil 2. Corn is cross pollinated by the wind – you get better results by planting in a square block rather then rows (yes I know they plant rows in fields but then they plant many rows effectively making a block. 3. personal experience plant your seed in seed trays indoors or under glass in Feb early may, then plant out foot high plants, you get a better result IMHO. 4. Mice LOVE corn.
That corn was pink right? That means its coated in a poison to kill stuff that would damage the corn. Would not recomend eating that chicken. Pesticides have been linked to cancer.
Do you have a lot of clay in that soil? Here in Mn we are so sandy in most places it's hardly ever a concern when you plow or till.
Corn needs nitrogen, you could have just taken a hoe and dug a hole 1 in or so done and planted. You do not want compaction. You are trying to hard. Cover it over not to deep and let it role
Nitrogen fertilizer is your friend. Use it to make up lost ground
Hi Destin, there's a thing called "no till" farming. All I know is the soil holds moisture better and it's supposed to save water. It sounds like a lot less work too- but i understand you're more of a "long way to a short answer" fella.
Mid 30s and I didn't know this either! We need more videos exactly like this!!!!
Soil Destin. Dirt is a 4 letter word.
Thanks for sharing. I watch so many things you do and am blown away by your engineering and watching you think you are struggling with gardening. Give it time
Here in Montana, a rain would help break up the clumps. Maybe a dowsing of water?
So, is the chicken going to survive after eating that treated corn seed? How do you like butchering chickens? I grew up on a farm, and I'm perfectly happy going to the store or restaurant to buy my food.
Maybe you could ask Cody from Cody's Lab for some info about your crops… It would be nice to see two science youtubers collab as colleagues.