I've got a small batch of corn and I wanted to help them along with
pollination. Most have tassel-stalks fully emerged and spread out with
the little tassels hanging on most of them. I've read pollination
occurs in the morning hours (not too hot not too cold) and too much
wind may cause pollen failure in small crops like mine.

The thing I'm missing is the silks or "ear shoots" I don't see
anything but the tassels. Anyone know of a picture of what I'm
looking for? I've read the pollen has to fall on the ear shoot and
silks but I'm not seeing anything.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
1st Year Gardener

DigitalVinyl wrote:

I've got a small batch of corn and I wanted to help them along with
pollination. Most have tassel-stalks fully emerged and spread out with
the little tassels hanging on most of them. I've read pollination
occurs in the morning hours (not too hot not too cold) and too much
wind may cause pollen failure in small crops like mine.

The thing I'm missing is the silks or "ear shoots" I don't see
anything but the tassels. Anyone know of a picture of what I'm
looking for? I've read the pollen has to fall on the ear shoot and
silks but I'm not seeing anything.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
1st Year Gardener

The silk are the very thin strands that peek out of the top of the ear.

--
Zone 5b (Detroit, MI)
I do not post my address to news groups.

DigitalVinyl writes:

The thing I'm missing is the silks or "ear shoots" I don't see
anything but the tassels. Anyone know of a picture of what I'm
looking for? I've read the pollen has to fall on the ear shoot and
silks but I'm not seeing anything.

They probably just haven't gotten that far yet. You'll normally see
tassels before ears, but they won't start dropping pollen right away.
As the ear grows, it'll be all cob, and it'll gradually start growing
silks out the end that are a whitish/clear color. I believe each silk
runs down to a different point on the cob where one kernel will grow.

As the silks get pollinated, the kernels begin to grow, and the silks
turn dark. Once that happens, you can carefully peel the husk back
from an ear to see if it's ready. If it's not ready, try to put the
husk back in place as well as possible, to keep bugs out. One test
for readiness is to puncture a kernel with a fingernail. If it
squirts out milk, it's ready. If the kernels are starting to dent on
top, it's past ready and getting tough.


--
Aaron