What do you spray your silks with to keep the corn from having
worms in the ear??

I read it in a posting a year or so ago but can't find it now.

any help appreciated.

RogerX

This was in the Boggy Creek Farm newsletter on June 9:

"We passed by the corn rows. The plants looked swell, tassels waving,
ears forming, leaves strong, green, and free of suspicious holes. Ahhh,
we sighed, the corn looks terrific! It will be a "corn year." There had
been, of course, a weather event during our carefree off-the-farm
excursion, and strong winds had bent the "polenta corn" to forty-five
degree angles. Still in our reunion duds, we immediately propped the
affected ones back up and thought again how good they looked.

Four days later, an intuition propelled me to go into the corn and
really check it all out. Ten feet in, past the good-looking decoys, the
destruction was obvious. So obvious that I would later be able to draw
it from memory. Corn borers had tunneled through the leaves wrapping
around the tassels and the worms were busy destroying the life-giving
pollen bearers. If the corn plants lose their tassels, there is no
pollination and thus no kernels of corn. Oh horrors! So much can happen
so fast! Immediately the interns and I waded through the rows, examining
every single tassel (thousands) and extracting hundreds of worms, small
and large. Many tassels were eaten in half; some were totally absent,
the formerly strapping leaves chewed to a mess. Our hearts were heavy as
we thought of the corn's tainted future and your disappointment. But the
hens were delirious, as every single worm, by the handsful, was carried
to the Hen House. We had to shake our hands to keep the worms off
balance, as after a few minutes, they would get hungry and go for our
palms. An unnerving thought, no?

Some tassels were too young to have emerged from the rolled-up
leaves, and if there were no tell-tale entry holes, we left them to
develop without any well-intentioned, but potentially harmful, manipulation.

As the interns continued with the worm patrol, I shouldered the
made-for-a-man back-pack sprayer filled with three gallons of water and
Bt. (Bt is worm specific & organically approved; it bothers no other
insects.) Into the tassel or into the rolled leaves, I sprayed a good
slug of the juice, just in case we had missed tiny worms. The straps,
widely set, slipped annoyingly from my shoulders, like a most unruly
female undergarment, except these straps were connected to a container
carrying heavy water. But no discomfort, not even biting worms, would
stop our mission to save the corn.

I was incensed that the worms couldn't wait until the ears were
growing. By then, we would have had good pollination, and we expect
worms. At that time, they would be known as corn ear worms. (When they
are on the tomatoes and other fruits, they are fruit worms. Same
villain; different taste buds.)"


Roger\"X\" wrote:

What do you spray your silks with to keep the corn from having
worms in the ear??

I read it in a posting a year or so ago but can't find it now.

any help appreciated.

RogerX

Drop of mineral oil on the just-emerging silks.

Don't wait too long, or it will be too late.

"Roger"X"" wrote in message
news
What do you spray your silks with to keep the corn from having
worms in the ear??

I read it in a posting a year or so ago but can't find it now.

any help appreciated.

RogerX