corn half grown
 

I just got a cob of corn from the garden, and it looks perfect on one end, has nice juicy kernels that have a milky liquid and the silks were brown (have been for about a week) but one half of the cob didn't look like it had grown at all, I was wondering is this a normal occurance with corn? it is the end that wasn't attached to the plant, its got the kernels there but they are like a 10th of the size of the other kernels and they have no liquid at all inside...

Witchy Mama wrote:
I just got a cob of corn from the garden, and it looks perfect on one
end, has nice juicy kernels that have a milky liquid and the silks were
brown (have been for about a week) but one half of the cob didn't look
like it had grown at all, I was wondering is this a normal occurance
with corn? it is the end that wasn't attached to the plant, its got the
kernels there but they are like a 10th of the size of the other kernels
and they have no liquid at all inside...

It wasn't fully pollinated. There's a silk for each kernel and if the
corn is not pollinated fully, the kernel doesn't grow.

Mary

That happens some times.
It's a pollination problem. Those tiny kernels on one side didn't
receive any pollen so they never developed. Either the silks for that
side never emerged from the husks or, more likely, a pest ate the silks
for that side before pollination occurred.
Poor pollination can also occur in plants on the upwind edge of the
patch because most of the pollen just blows the other way. That's not
your situation because that tends to produce hit or miss kernels all
over the cob and not one good side and one bad side.

Steve


Witchy Mama wrote:
I just got a cob of corn from the garden, and it looks perfect on one
end, has nice juicy kernels that have a milky liquid and the silks were
brown (have been for about a week) but one half of the cob didn't look
like it had grown at all, I was wondering is this a normal occurance
with corn? it is the end that wasn't attached to the plant, its got the
kernels there but they are like a 10th of the size of the other kernels
and they have no liquid at all inside...

That happens some times.
It's a pollination problem. Those tiny kernels on one side didn't
receive any pollen so they never developed. Either the silks for that
side never emerged from the husks or, more likely, a pest ate the silks
for that side before pollination occurred.
Poor pollination can also occur in plants on the upwind edge of the
patch because most of the pollen just blows the other way. That's not
your situation because that tends to produce hit or miss kernels all
over the cob and not one good side and one bad side.

Steve


Witchy Mama wrote:
I just got a cob of corn from the garden, and it looks perfect on one
end, has nice juicy kernels that have a milky liquid and the silks were
brown (have been for about a week) but one half of the cob didn't look
like it had grown at all, I was wondering is this a normal occurance
with corn? it is the end that wasn't attached to the plant, its got the
kernels there but they are like a 10th of the size of the other kernels
and they have no liquid at all inside...

That happens some times.
It's a pollination problem. Those tiny kernels on one side didn't
receive any pollen so they never developed. Either the silks for that
side never emerged from the husks or, more likely, a pest ate the silks
for that side before pollination occurred.
Poor pollination can also occur in plants on the upwind edge of the
patch because most of the pollen just blows the other way. That's not
your situation because that tends to produce hit or miss kernels all
over the cob and not one good side and one bad side.

Steve


Witchy Mama wrote:
I just got a cob of corn from the garden, and it looks perfect on one
end, has nice juicy kernels that have a milky liquid and the silks were
brown (have been for about a week) but one half of the cob didn't look
like it had grown at all, I was wondering is this a normal occurance
with corn? it is the end that wasn't attached to the plant, its got the
kernels there but they are like a 10th of the size of the other kernels
and they have no liquid at all inside...

thanks, I would be going for the pest idea seeing as I had a bit of a grasshoppper problem a month or so ago