The wild turkeys watch my dad plant his sweet corn and then go down and eat it after he leaves 
The neighbor to the area he planted last year said he couldn’t figure out what they were doing walking and pecking a straight line… Til he saw dad the next day planting more…
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That’s soooooo obnoxious!
Would planting six inches deep foil the turkeys? Or would they still be able to reach it?
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I think it would depend. I don’t imagine them scratching down 6 inches so I’d think so. But I’ve been proven wrong before 
I think it would mostly keep them from plucking the seeds right away. Lots of things still like the fresh sprout of corn and pull the whole thing up when they eat it. So it would need to be deep enough that doesn’t happen. How deep is deep enough may depend on soil type?
Here at my new house there is tons of squirrels. So I guess I’ll find out how much of a pain they get to be.
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Yeahhhh . . . 
Come to think of it, this may illustrate a good reason to try planting things into polycultures, instead of in neat, tidy rows. It fools the pest insects, we know that – but maybe it may also hide those seeds and seedlings from the larger critters, too!
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My grain corn and popcorn are both popping up! I planted the grain corn (GTS and Slime corn) according to the slime corn package instructions, which specified 6" deep in clumps instead of rows. Normally I don’t go quite that deep, but it seems to have worked quite well!
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Everything has tasseled, corn pollen everywhere 
. Hoping good pollination happened, eagerly and patient to pop open ears soon. The squash is growing like crazy, and the wheat is starting to head out, its all the way on the wall where it gets plenty of afternoon sun. The wind mostly blows in the greenhouse from the West, but I did have a few winds blowing Southeast to North, so fingers crossed for corn pollination. The greenhouse is oriented North to South with the side plastic left rolled up. No danger of cold weather, and the wind can pass through the mesh and do its thing for the corn pollen.
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I ended up planting two seeds per hole about 6 inches deep, holes spaced approximately 12 inches apart In rows spaced 16 inches apart. Two blocks that will be inter-planted with beans and squash soon. Got my first seedling popping up today, 11 days after sowing.
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The coastal sweet from GTS. Sprouted indoors and transplanted 2 days from germination. Had to mulch for a night that was 22° F, but otherwise has survived several frosts. Vigor has improved with the soil warming. I’m really pushing the envelope for how early corn can be planted here. This experiment has gone great so far.
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The earliest of my first planting is putting out a tassel (I will save seed from this plant special for all of you short-season growers), and the rest of it is growing nicely (even the two that were far too shaded under the celery early in the season - note to self: don’t do that again). Some plants are putting out as many as 4 tillers. The second planting is just emerging.
For discussion: is it preferable to plant the whole block (about 90 plants) all at once (times 3 crops a year), or to stagger the two halves? The whole block nominally increases pollination rates, and allows more crosses. Two halves lets us eat twice as much sweet corn straight off the plants instead of freezing some because we can’t quite keep up.
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Several of these are starting to tassle! Woot! I sowed more corn in another bed that the snails ate everything else, and these are starting to pop up. We just got some rain, so here’s to hoping the snails don’t eat all of these. My 8 yr old and I were out stomping on every snail we could find earlier, just after the rain.
All ya’lls reports and experiments are quite interesting, please keep updating here!
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Im having my husband taste test and harvest a few ears. Im grateful he will help out. Im in NY helping my Mom for a few weeks.
This cob is all yellow and the stalk has two more cobs. So he is eating this one and the other two will be for seed.
If I harvest a cob at milk stage for eating, eat a bite, can the rest of the kernals be left on the cob to dry for seed? Will they be viable?
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They won’t mature properly if picked at the milk stage. However, it is possible to carefully open the husk, use a sharp knife to remove the top half or 3/4 of the cob for eating, and leave the rest to mature. Bundle the husk back as best you can (possibly tie with a bit of twine) to keep the bugs out. I know that some don’t save the seed from the bottom inch of the cob, I’m not such a purist.
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Is “slime corn” Sierra Mixe? I’m very curious about it now. 
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No, though that would be fun to get ahold of, too. Link in my earlier post:
So far these are growing fairly well for being neglected. I need to go out and pull the bindweed that’s popped up and get some pics.
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Thank you! I failed to notice that link!
Nitrogen-fixing is such an excellent trait.
Hey, come to think of it, just a random thought, but . . . if the “slime” is sweet-tasting, is it the same thing as corn syrup? If so, would nitrogen-fixing corn be better at using to make syrup with? I mean, we all know high-fructose corn syrup is very unhealthy to eat, but I imagine real corn syrup is probably quite nice, just like sorghum syrup and sugarcane syrup (molasses).
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I have corn plants up and putting out the pollen stocks at the top (yeah, I don’t have all the vocab down yet), but at least one of them has fallen over. Blah. I’m a cultivator! I’m one who scoops up the down trodden and puts them back on their feet, but I gotta remember that plants aren’t people (hope I’m not crushing anyone’s hopes), so might have to just pull it. Or merely eat what it makes, if it makes any ears. I did another bed going with the rest of my corn seeds, and I harvested as many snails for DEATH in soapy water as I could this morning after our rain that were in that area. Yes, please hear my best James Earl Jones voice for what happens to snails when I get ahold of them! Those corn seeds are sprouting and some leaves are poking out of the dirt! Even a few inches tall!
For corn stocks that are so shallow, they fall over, did I not plant the seed deep enough? Or is it something else?
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Pictures of the fallen over corn? And a close up of the base?
Here is the base. You can see the roots extending into the dirt. the fork was to help keep cats out of the bed.
And here is a view of the plant, its being held up on onions!
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That small, it wouldn’t surprise me if it perks back up. Did your cat sleep on it? (My 2 year old knocked over part of mine early this year. They all straightened back up.)
Two years ago, we had an exceedingly rare hurricane come through in late summer and the whole garden got drenched/blown over. (Everyone east of the Rockies is welcome to comment about our typical lack of summer storms. My mom is shocked when she comes to visit and I don’t use a single clothespin to keep the sheets on the line.) My corn was tasseling and got flattened. It was pushing hard against “too late to replant”, so I left it. Half went on to produce decent ears.
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