I messed up on my corn. I didn't realize they were heavy nitrogen
feeders and haven't been given them extra nitrogen. All but one of
the stalks sent out tassels a few weeks ago, but the silks just
started appearing in the last week. I don't expect pollination to
occur. I'm guessing this is the fertilizer imbalance. I was using a
heavier phosphorus mix.

One curiousity. One of the corn stalks is a mass of tassels. Where all
the rest have these neat "trees" of tassels spread out high above the
stalk leaves...this one has so many tassels coming out the top that
they literally appear to have gotten stuck coming out. I pulled back
the top leaves(which didn't separate) and there is a 1" round of
tassels jammed inside the stalk--which are grey and fuzzy
(molding/rot).

In the photo I pulled the leaves away (they were stuck to the tassels)
to show how packed the inside is. I'd say this has three times the
tassels of any other.
http://members.aol.com/digitalvinyl6...sselsStuck.jpg

Is this just a random thing that occasionally happens? Do you loosen
the leaves to get the tassels to come out? Sign of a
problem...possible result of high phosphorus instead of high nitrogen.
This would make sense if tassel production relied on Phosphorus. That
would explain why they came out so much earlier than the silks and the
mongrel-cluster on top of this one.

I'm pretty sure corn is shot for this year but I'm trying to
understand what I could do different next year if I try again.
DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
1st Year Gardener