wondering if we have any farmers here that can help me out -- my hubby and I are trying are hands at organic farming and most of our plants are doing very well...but our corn is...well, we think it's stunted and we aren't sure why so I will tell you what we have done and maybe someone will know if there is anything we can do to fix it.

 

Last summer, we dug the bed up and all season pulled weeds and grass from it...then in the fall, we covered the bed with manure and compost and then tilled it again in the spring (this was in late march so not really spring, but you know what I mean)...hubby ran some tests on the bed (not sure what, but i think like, a ph test and all that). I know that the ph was off a bit and he had to add some sand (this is what the dude who owns our farmer's market told him to do) to the bed and this seemed to work. Hubby tested it several times over the next several weeks and said everything was fine now so at the beginning of may, we sat our corn out in the bed (I had started it in seed starter and it was about 6 inches tall when I transplanted). Well, the corn did really well for a few weeks, got to about 3 1/2 feet tall and then just stopped growing. The only insects/bugs we have had problems with on it are the slugs but hubby made these little trough thingymebobs that we buried around the bed and keep filled with beer and this has deterred most of the slugs.

 

We had the dude from the farmer's market come over and he and hubby tested the...um, i'm thinking nitrogen levels? (lupron memory, so you will have to excuse the gaps in my memory). He looked at our plants and said he didn't think it was anykind of disease on the corn (the corn looks really well -- it's just not growing anymore) and he didn't see signs to suggest that some other kind of critter was messing with it. He also ruled out wind (he said that can cause a lot of damage) and pretty much, his only suggestion was to water it a bit more (he said corn needs more water as it gets bigger) so we have been watering it more for the last three weeks but nothing has changed. A couple of the plants are starting to turn yellowish and I'm now worried that we are either not watering enough or overwatering. So...does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Love and light

angie