How do you adapt your gardening to cooler, damper conditions?

[moolie]

The only problem with June generally being frost-free is that June is our rainiest month, and the "rainy season" can extend well into July like it did in 2011. Last year we dealt with it as best we could by using water-filled "kozy koats" or "wall-o-waters" to keep our tomato and pepper plants warmer than the cool ambient temps, and using row covers.

I wonder whether the row cover (if made using clear plastic sheeting, not remay cloth) could help with the early development of sweet corn? I've had fair to very good results with sweet corn for over 25 years, using mostly hybrid varieties - but all that changed with the change in weather. This year, we started a lot of our corn (three varieites, for hope/experimentation) in the greenhouse using 38-cell styrofoam starting trays. We ran out of room to start all our corn in the greenhouse. But the plants that were started in the g.h. outperformed the ones directly seeded into rows in the garden. But still, probably 90% of the direct-seeded corn rotted rather than germinated, and the g.h.-started plants did not develop all that well once they were in the garden. Overall it was a terrible corn year.

I've always read that corn doesn't like its roots to be disturbed so I've never considered transplanting, I wonder if that's why your greenhouse starts didn't put on enough growth? Of the 3 varieties you tried, which worked out the best this year?

Plastic row covers, over plastic hot caps (which we also have) might actually do it. We also place "heat sink" rocks/cinder blocks near our tender plants when they first get planted out--they heat up during the day and radiate that heat out overnight.

I think it's worth trying for us next spring since hubs is so into corn. Don't know if we could grow both flint and yellow corn in our small yard without it cross-pollinating though

 

[Joel_BC]

I've always read that corn doesn't like its roots to be disturbed so I've never considered transplanting, I wonder if that's why your greenhouse starts didn't put on enough growth?

We've started corn in the g.h. quite a few times, and the transplants have worked out well. This year, problems didn't stem from the indoor starting and transplanting, the problem was a lack of a normal summer hot-days stretch (most years, we get a stretch like that for a month or six weeks) - and that lack resulted in a lack of warm nights during summer.

Even though indoor starting and transplanting has always shown itself to be superior in our experience, we've nearly always been able to get a decent crop of sweet corn from direct seeding, prior to 2011. That's because we've determined some good short-season varieties for the central Kootenay. With those, the cobs are shorter than the longer-season types, but the corn is just as delicious to eat.

Of the 3 varieties you tried, which worked out the best this year?

Overall (and, mind you, results were generally dismal) the best was Peaches & Cream.

One of the three varieties, though, was Hooker's Sweet Corn, which a neighbor told me can be brought to maturity in the Chilcotin! However, it produces very small ears (often 6" or less), and there is only a small window of opportunity with ripeness... it's yellow and nice for a few days, then it starts to turn blue (like Hopi corn) and gets a bit tough. (You could probably still feed animals or maybe grind cornmeal from it in its blue stage.) It might well work for you, as it did (in its own way, for us), but you'd have to decide it you like the result much.

Plastic row covers, over plastic hot caps (which we also have) might actually do it. We also place "heat sink" rocks/cinder blocks near our tender plants when they first get planted out--they heat up during the day and radiate that heat out overnight.

I think it's worth trying for us next spring since hubs is so into corn. Don't know if we could grow both flint and yellow corn in our small yard without it cross-pollinating though

Cross-pollenating will occur, but only if there is a real overlap of tasseling/pollenation times... and that depends on the characteristics of the varieites planted.

 

[moolie]

Good to know about the transplanting, always good to hear real life experience vs. book information when it comes to things that could make a huge difference in our garden

And thanks for sharing about your more successful varieties, and once hubs reads your comments about Hooker's Sweet and the Chilcotin I know he will take that as a challenge for next year


This is our first time with the Floriani Red Flint and we've not yet been successful with any sweet corn varieties in the past (I'll have to check my notebook to remember what they were) so I have no idea if they'll be tasseling at the same time

I guess we'll just have to try to grow Floriani a few more times (if this year goes well) to know what we're doing there, and then add a sweet variety, or maybe put one variety in the front yard and one in the back... we'll figure something out!

 

[odd_duck99]

Joel I can also vouch for Territorial Seed. You may also look into a local seed developer, as the test gardens at TS are in a different climate than yours. I just moved to Portland from Seattle (technically Everett, about 30 minutes north of seattle) and was shocked at the weather difference! It's been about 10-15 degrees warmer here on average, and we are only 4 hours away! We haven't had any measurable rain in over a month. It's weird.

I can't give too much advice that hasn't already been said, as I am only a baby gardener. I would say that if you save your seeds - you will eventually have a breed that does well in your area!

 

[Joel_BC]

Joel I can also vouch for Territorial Seed. You may also look into a local seed developer, as the test gardens at TS are in a different climate than yours.

Normally, I'd say that regional or local seed developers (or seed-saving businesses putting locally successful varieties on the market) would be a good bet. But since the weather has been throwing us a real curve - with the increased rain, humidity, and overcast, and the shortened hot spells and lack of warm summer nights - the local seed source people are as puzzled as everyone else, it seems.

 

[ORChick]

Joel, do you normally get warm summer nights up your way? Its been getting down into the 50's at night here (near I-5, about 3/5 of the way down Oregon), and that is pretty normal. The days have not been quite so warm - more 70s-80s than 90s for the last few weeks, but I'm OK with that. Also no rain here, which is also normal at this time of year. Our odd weather has been the long, wet spring we had, and the somewhat cooler temps now.

 

[Joel_BC]

Joel, do you normally get warm summer nights up your way? Its been getting down into the 50's at night here (near I-5, about 3/5 of the way down Oregon), and that is pretty normal. The days have not been quite so warm - more 70s-80s than 90s for the last few weeks, but I'm OK with that. Also no rain here, which is also normal at this time of year. Our odd weather has been the long, wet spring we had, and the somewhat cooler temps now.

Yeah, we had the overcast and rains well into July, with few stretches (three or four days) of clear weather. Usually in July & August, we get stretches of days in the 95-102* F range (actually we don't use Farenheit scale anymore, but I'm using that so it can be easily understood). This year, instead of a month or six weeks at those temps, we've had maybe two weeks in the 80-90* range - without warm nights.