Most folks around here tell you to plant potatoes on Valentine's Day. Well, I just came in under the wire as I covered them up just before dark on Saturday.
Now I have to play a waiting game for a few weeks now before I head back out to the big garden.
According to the East Texas planting guide, which you can find on here, we can start planting sweet corn on March 1.
Some say its a bit early, others say its fine. I have planted on that date before and haven't had any trouble. Of course two years ago we got a heavy snow on Easter, it didn't bother the corn, though.
The plan is to Merritt sweet corn and G-90 sweet corn. The Merritt will be for canning and the G-90 for eating.
The G-90 is a bi-color corn with a high sugar content. It tastes great right off the cob and I love to grill it, but when it comes to canning, the extra sugar in the corn will turn it brown when exposed to the heat of the pressure cooker.
Merritt corn, while not quite as sweet as G-90, is still sweet and holds up better to the canning process.
Also, I will plant some yellow dent later. It will probably be in April before it gets in the ground.
The beans will go in mid-March and the peas in April.
Back to the corn. In case you are wondering for the early planting date, I would like to familiarize you with the corn earworm.
It is the little worm that gets into the end of an ear of corn and feeds on it before drilling a hole out of the husk and falling to the ground to turn into a moth.
For us country folk the worm in the ear of corn is no big deal, but try and sell a worm to city folks and see what kind of look they will give you.
Anyway, planting early will cut down on some of the worm damage. It also keeps your corn from going through as much of the hot and dry Texas summer.
Until next time.
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