Last year the bunnies ate the young stalks. This year things were looking good until the squirrels came along and either ate through the mature stalks or went straight for the cob. Here you can see the squirrel is making a nice straight line as he chomps his way through the kernels after knocking it over. Sometimes I wake up to find corn leaves strewn across the lawn. One morning I even saw a fat grey squirrel take a flying leap from the fence attaching itself to the cob while the plant was rocking back and forth.
I have come to the conclusion if you have a garden close to mature trees, you will probably have an issue with squirrels. It doesn't help that at least 2 neighbours are feeding them peanuts as well. Feeding squirrels is a bit like feeding mice. I don't get it.
Total cobs harvested for human consumption: 1
Total cobs harvested for squirrel consumption: 10
I'd rather have to deal with bunnies than squirrels.
Posts
How was the one surviving cob?
ReplyDeleteTo the horror and disgust of Daughter Younger, I am saving the one surviving cob for seed!
ReplyDeleteDon't save the seed again after growing out that single cob. Inbreeding depression will cause the crop to fail.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea...will have to read up on that. Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteNo problem. I grow out heirloom corn and I try to save a couple of seeds from at least 250 different plants every year to maintain the strain's vigour. This is why saving corn seed from a small backyard garden is virtually impossible, they will inevitably get smaller and weaker with each successive generation.
ReplyDeleteGood luck.