Have a problem with my corn

Classicvette63 · #1 07-24-2005, 04:58 PM

I went out today to check on the garden an noticed something strange. On one of the ears of corn something was growing on the top of it. Easiest way to describe what it looks like is kinda like a brain. Grayish color and squiggley. It's firm and not a bug. What the heck is it? Should I remove that ear or the whole plant? Thanks

tooldummy · #2 07-24-2005, 06:28 PM

I think what you have is smut. Check out this link.
http://plantpathology.tamu.edu/Texla...s/Corn/cs.html
I think this is what you described. I've seen it growing on the ear itself, on the tassel, but mostly down low, around the root. It is most severe during dry weather. I don't know any cure for it, or have any suggestions what to do. Sorry.

Ol` Joe · #3 07-24-2005, 09:34 PM

Quote:

I think what you have is smut.

Quick, get rid of the corn! Burn it, scatter the ashes!!

Smut is illegal in public, around kids, on your `puter, ect. You are risking raids by the police, FBI, CIA, and every other para force that needs terrorist training at the expense of you and yours. They`ll sieze your corn, computer, pics of you kissing grandma at graduation, and prosecute you mercilessly. The fact you didn`t know what it was or how it got there means nothing. life as you know it is at risk!!

Sorry I can`t be more help........................

BILLY D. · #4 07-24-2005, 09:56 PM

OL' JOE

I LOVE IT.

YOU MADE MY DAY

Darkwolf · #5 07-24-2005, 11:07 PM

Yeah, it sounds like corn smut. Was there a lot of rain around the time the plants were pollenating? It's a kind of fungus. I'd check for other infections and dispose of them, preferably far away or burn them so the spores don't hang around for next year.

Alternatively, you COULD eat the smut-infected corn....

In south-central Mexico, there is a variety of maize bred to be smut-friendly... down there the fungus is considered a delicassy, like truffles. No accounting for tastes, though....

Classicvette63 · #6 07-25-2005, 08:23 PM

Yep, it looks like smut. We have had a lot of rain for this time of year. I took the whole plant out and put it in the garbage. Now I have some critter eating my corn.

Saturday night something ripped an ear off and ate it in the yard, leaving the ear to taunt me. Today it took two more. One it broke off and the other it ate the kernels right off the stalk! Would a squirrel do that? Maybe a raccon? Guess I'll have to put a fence up around the corn now.

M.T. Pockets · #7 07-26-2005, 08:18 AM

Raccoons can smell sweet corn for miles, they like to take one bite out of an ear, then move to the next. I know a farmer who planted his garden sweet corn out in the middle of his regular field corn in an 80 acre plot. The racoons found it.

I know another gardener that puts two strands of electric fence around his to keep racoons out.

Wolvie · #8 07-26-2005, 08:28 AM

A Squirrel or Raccoon could have done that,..but deer more then likely,...especially if the ear is higher off the ground.
usually the lower the smaller the animal,unless the top ears are already missing.

I had corn in my garden, and a ground hog decided that one ear wasnt enough at a time so she just pulled down the whole stock.
My garden went to the "HOGS" (groundHogs that is), they ate EVERYTHING!!!
I thought I took care of all that in the beginning of the planting part,..but I guess momma had lil ones and I didnt know of them until now.
I have about 7 lil guys and a WHOPPER Papa hog on my 1.2 acre lot.
I had plans for the lil critters but since I live in a villiage I am not allowed to shoot them ,even with a bow.
Ny is like that,...either I have to call a animal,bug control place and pay out a ton of $$$ to get rid of them , or I guess I`ll have to club the garden bandits as I see them.
But as for this year they get a free salad on me,..but next year,I plan to have a BETTER plan to rid me of those GARDEN BANDITS!!!!

Dang I really wanted those water melons and cherry mators this year.!!

Later All
SAFE HUNTIN~

DaMadman · #9 07-26-2005, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Wolvie
A Squirrel or Raccoon could have done that,..but deer more then likely,...especially if the ear is higher off the ground.
usually the lower the smaller the animal,unless the top ears are already missing.

I had corn in my garden, and a ground hog decided that one ear wasnt enough at a time so she just pulled down the whole stock.
My garden went to the "HOGS" (groundHogs that is), they ate EVERYTHING!!!
I thought I took care of all that in the beginning of the planting part,..but I guess momma had lil ones and I didnt know of them until now.
I have about 7 lil guys and a WHOPPER Papa hog on my 1.2 acre lot.
I had plans for the lil critters but since I live in a villiage I am not allowed to shoot them ,even with a bow.
Ny is like that,...either I have to call a animal,bug control place and pay out a ton of $$$ to get rid of them , or I guess I`ll have to club the garden bandits as I see them.
But as for this year they get a free salad on me,..but next year,I plan to have a BETTER plan to rid me of those GARDEN BANDITS!!!!

Dang I really wanted those water melons and cherry mators this year.!!

Later All
SAFE HUNTIN~

set yourself a live trap and then humanly euthenize them and eat them.

you know they say a Corn fed hog is good eats

Wolvie · #10 07-26-2005, 07:54 PM

But I dont really know yet.
I live with PETA lovers,.lolol!
I have to tell them that its beef,...they dont know for sure,..they arent meat educated.LOLOLO !!

Heck they had some squirrel about a month ago and I told them it was chicken and they believed me,.....well I served it with stove top stuffin`.

I`ll have to pick my moment when I do go to get those varmits,.....

Ok All Gotta go and play some POGO,....
And think about a way of doing this.

Later All
SAFE HUNTIN~

Classicvette63 · #11 07-27-2005, 11:31 PM

It's the dang squirrels that are stealing my corn! My wife watched one climb a stalk and steal an ear tonite. Of course she just watched instead of chasing him away.

I'll have my fence finished tomorrow, hopefully that will keep them out. It kept them out of my other garden so I'll cross my fingers.

Ol` Joe · #12 07-28-2005, 01:34 AM

Good Luck!
I haven`t seen a fence yet that would keep a squirrel out of anything. I watched one at my old house drop from a neighbors tree branch onto my cloths line, walk the wire to a lilac bush, hop to the bush and from there to a bird feeder on a pole. The whole time a very up set Airedale was running back and forth under the thing trying to get a mouth full.
I`ve also seen one hang upside down from a low branch and feed from a feeder that had a collar type do-hicky on the pole in hopes of preventing the squirrels from getting in the feeder by climbing the pole.

Jabba · #13 07-28-2005, 07:23 AM

We've been fighting the coons in our corn patch. Live trapped a few. Brother didn't want to kill them so we relocated them. Just for the record, he's a hunter... but he talked me into the theory that they were just trying to make a living like the rest of us.

He has the corn patch e-Fenced now. That seems to do a good job keeping them out of the corn.

I keep trying to tlak him into trapping them... then releasing them INSIDE the preimeter of the E-Fence, so they have to cross it to get out... then throw rocks at them till the leave. Our corn patch is only about 30' square.

Jabba