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ves's Experimental Heirloom Corn garden

Garden Type: Heirloom | Sun: Full Sun | Soil: Clay I'm Organic!

This garden has been archived.

I really want to plant all of my garden in double-dug beds, as close to the biointensive method described by John Jeavons in “How to grow more vegetables….” as I can.

But getting one bed dug took forever…It’s planted with peppers, tomatoes, peas, and corn. I have nine more to go…and it’s the middle of June.

A fellow gardener rototilled the remaining space for me, and recommended adding some lime and just putting plants in…he thinks there’s plenty of fertility in the soil without amendments (I notice he is using heavy doses of straw and manure, at least in sections).

For two of my corn beds, I’m going to split the difference. I will plant add the same amendments to both (manure, lime, compost), plant them both with two varieties of corn, interplanted with beans and squash. But one will be double-dug, and the other will just have the amendments worked in at the top.

BIOINTENSIVE BED (on the right in photo):

I will prepare one bed, rototilled and then double-dug, with chicken manure worked into the lower foot, and lime and a purchased compost added to the top few inches.

ROTOTILLER BED (on the left in photo):

I will prepare one bed, rototilled, with manure and compost worked into the top foot, and the lime raked into the top few inches.

Planting and watering: identical for both beds. I’ll use a timer when watering to give them both the same amount.

The race is on.

Rate of growth (germination, height, etc.) will compared weekly during the growing season.
Harvest, by number of fruit (for ears of corn and squashes and/or squash blossoms) and by weight (shelled corn, beans) squash, will be compared at the end of the growing season.

Photos

Plantings

Comments

TropicanaRoses wrote:
I was just wondering how this turned out for you? I noticed that it has been archived, but I would like to know. Next time I plan to double dig my corn patch, and amend the soil with compost. We did not have any compost when it was time to plant the corn, that came 2 weeks later, so I have been side dressing them, but they are nowhere near as tall as the corn in my boxes. About half the height. So next year I would like to try your method.

Posted on 15 Jul 09 (about 4 months ago)
ves wrote:
In the end both beds were overwhelmed by weeds. I had a limited amount of amendments, mostly horse manure and a little purchased compost, and I put the same amount in both. In the double-dug bed I had most of it down deep and just a little on top. In the other I just worked everything in with a fork.

The bed where everything was close to the surface actually did better for the first few weeks. Makes sense, because that’s where the roots are the first few weeks. I think I had planted one bed of corn that was double-dug properly, and take good care of it, I would have gotten some corn. But I tried to do too much—I had all that space, after all—and end up with a few puny ears.

I top-dressed with lime when everything looked yellow. Lime really needs to be dug in at the beginning, if possible. I learned from another gardener that if a soil is too acid, the roots can’t take up the nitrogen that is already available in the soil. Most northwest soils are pretty acid because the rain leaches out the nutrients (calcium, etc.) that keeps soils closer to neutral.

It was also a bad year for corn — it was cold and took a long time to sprout. I just skipped corn this year but I really like it. Next year I think I will start corn inside at home in tall tubes of rolled newspaper (6 inches or so) and transplant them when they are a few inches tall. This will give them a good head start and avoid the serious problem that my garden site has with crows.

Posted on 16 Jul 09 (about 4 months ago)