# Hoeing The Sweet Corn



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

I have a small patch of sweet corn coming up and it needs hoeing. It also needs thinning and will do that later. Today the weather is perfect... sunny, a bit of a breeze and not hot. Living on a farmstead, I can't imagine ever needing to have membership in a fitness club. It is great exercise using a hoe and working in a garden.


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## Demitri.14 (Nov 21, 2018)




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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

Nice setup you have there. Need to quit fishing and get going on something like that.


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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

I can concur using a ho is, indeed, great exercise!

Place looks real nice @*******.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Planting corn. One for the raccoon, one for the crow, one for the borers, and one to grow!

I like the corn and fence! Peas and tomatoes in the raised beds?

I've got ~300' feet fence I need to put up looks to be same as yours, hardware store had a sale on 100' rolls last year. Waiting until I get the tractor/plowing done. Main pests are rabbits, woodchucks , turkeys and deer. Voles/mice some years.

You are months ahead of us growing season. Been too wet to work the soil and we might get some snow Fri/Sat, frost for sure. I've got lots of stuff started in my friends greenhouse, hope to get frost tolerant in ASAP


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Mad Trapper said:


> I like the corn and fence! Peas and tomatoes in the raised beds?


Yes, English peas in the closest bed. Onions & tomatoes in the farthest bed. Asparagus going to fern down from the corn.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

I'm just glad we haven't actually put anything in the ground as yet. They're talking snow here over the weekend!


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

******* said:


> Yes, English peas in the closest bed. Onions & tomatoes in the farthest bed. Asparagus going to fern down from the corn.


*******, you are awesome! Great to see pics of your garden on the forums once again. How are all your pups? Do you still have as many?


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Annie said:


> *******, you are awesome! Great to see pics of your garden on the forums once again. How are all your pups? Do you still have as many?


Down to 9 dogs now. The oldest passed away last year. My wife is off with our black lab now. My wife spends 5 days/nights a week off in Memphis caring for her mom and aunt. So one thing she does every Thursday is to take Stanley on a drive, where they go see friends (as best one can now) and takes him to fastfood for a treat. If its am, he gets a chicken biscuit. Afternoon like now, and he will get a chicken nugget meal. It is something that dog looks forward to each week.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

******* said:


> Down to 9 dogs now. The oldest passed away last year. My wife is off with our black lab now. My wife spends 5 days/nights a week off in Memphis caring for her mom and aunt. So one thing she does every Thursday is to take Stanley on a drive, where they go see friends (as best one can now) and takes him to fastfood for a treat. If its am, he gets a chicken biscuit. Afternoon like now, and he will get a chicken nugget meal. It is something that dog looks forward to each week.


Wow, the black lab's a lucky pup! I have a friend with a wee dog and when the fast food window opened up that pup jumped onto the counter.

Sorry to hear about the old guy. rip.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

I see you still have your “Rogue Hoe”. I bought one several years back on your recommendation. Actually, I bought two. Great tools! Mine will be getting a workout here after this weekends cold snap is over.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Chiefster23 said:


> I see you still have your "Rogue Hoe". I bought one several years back on your recommendation. Actually, I bought two. Great tools! Mine will be getting a workout here after this weekends cold snap is over.


You betcha! I have multiple. I can't even imagine trying to hoe those rows using a lightweight piece of crap one would get at a hardware store.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

******* said:


> You betcha! I have multiple. I can't even imagine trying to hoe those rows using a lightweight piece of crap one would get at a hardware store.


I'm lucky to have many hand tools from my parents and grandparents farms. Take care of them after each use, clean off dirt, wipe wooden handles down w/linseed oil once a year, keep cutting edges sharp. Most are older than I.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

I’m not trying to hijack this thread, BUT!......... This weather is nuts. My average last frost date is May 15. Tomorrow nite they are calling for temps in the mid 20s and snow on Saturday. I already have onions, potatoes, peas, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower planted. Now all these plants are supposed to be cold tolerant but mid 20s may be pushing it a little. I guess the freeze will kill all the fruit tree production again for this year. Last year I had one peach due to a late freeze. Guess we are going to have a repeat performance again this year.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Chiefster23 said:


> I'm not trying to hijack this thread, BUT!......... This weather is nuts. My average last frost date is May 15. Tomorrow nite they are calling for temps in the mid 20s and snow on Saturday. I already have onions, potatoes, peas, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower planted. Now all these plants are supposed to be cold tolerant but mid 20s may be pushing it a little. I guess the freeze will kill all the fruit tree production again for this year. Last year I had one peach due to a late freeze. Guess we are going to have a repeat performance again this year.


I'd say most of those garden plants should do fine but not certain about your potatoes. I don't remember them being cold hardy like your other varieties. My cold weather crops have handled mid 20s just fine. But yes, I'd bet you can say bye bye to your fruit.

Sometimes I get fed up with all the issues with fruit trees... be it killer frosts, fire blight, fungus, whatever. I think if I had it to do over again, I'd stick with berries (blueberries & blackberries) and grow more muscadines. Muscadine are native to the south, taste incredible, have no real disease issues and are in no hurry to set leaves and bloom. Late frost never gets them. Can eat fresh, make juice for wine or preserve as jams, jellies and muscadine butter.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

We are expecting 20s Fri and Sat nights with some snow. It's been too wet to get much of anything in the ground. I've got garlic resprouting from last fall and put some onions in, they should be fine.

My other started stuff is in a friends heated greenhouse, I'm glad I didn't transplant even the frost tolerant stuff now.
@Chiefster23 most of your stuff should be O.K. except potatoes. Are the sprouts up or still under ground? If sprouted I'd try to cover them. A leaf mulch or hay/straw might protect them, throw a lumber tarp on top of that. I have large piles of leaves and pine needles I'd use if my taters were in.

Fruit trees/berries/grapes here have not blossomed out here so I'm hoping they will be O.K.


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## Joe (Nov 1, 2016)

@******* you make me sick man. We had a heavy frost last night and due for snow today. Maybe I should move to Mississippi. PS beautiful garden your corn has a good color.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

Potatoes are not up yet so I’m going to cover the ground with a couple of layers of corregated cardboard and hope for the best. The rest, I’m going to cover with a couple layers of old blankets and a cheap plastic tarp and again, hope for the best. *******, I agree fruit trees are a pain in the ass. I think I have had more bad years than good with fruit production. But I have blueberries, red raspberries, and blackberries that do good every year. We have commercial orchards one county over were I can buy fruit for my canning projects. But even at the orchards, fruit ain’t cheap. Oh well, I’ve said it before........ gardening is a life-long journey and every year brings a different challenge.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Joe said:


> @******* you make me sick man. We had a heavy frost last night and due for snow today. Maybe I should move to Mississippi. PS beautiful garden your corn has a good color.


Will have even better color this week. After I took those pics I side dressed each row with 13-13-13 and it is raining as I type. They should love that as they are heavy feeders. Will thin them out tomorrow.


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## Robie (Jun 2, 2016)

Great looking garden.
That's a lot of dedication and hard work.


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## Elvis (Jun 22, 2018)

Prep of the Day...
Just ordered a 7" Rogue hoe. Thanks for the tip. Been looking for a heavy hoe. @*******


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Elvis said:


> Prep of the Day...
> Just ordered a 7" Rogue hoe. Thanks for the tip. Been looking for a heavy hoe. @*******


Let us know what you think about it. To me, they do an amazing job. Few days ago, I was talking with a friend whom I gave one of the Rogues. He was mentioning about how easily it could weed a garden, once you got used to the weight & angle of attack. Like he said, you learn to let the weight of the blade do the work, as opposed to hacking with your muscles. All you do is lift, and let gravity do the work.

I think, as preppers, they should be indispensable. There could be a time, where there are no tractors & tillers and we have to work the land by hand. Sure with time, we could go back to an age where we have draft animals and all the associated gear, but that could take decades. With such hoes, and enough human labor, one could clear the land and build large garden tracks... and keep them weeded. Would not be even remotely possible with what they sell in hardware stores.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

Woke up this morning to 26 degrees and a light dusting of snow. After the sun’s up I will inspect the damages to the trees and plants. The weatherman sez lows will be 30 degrees over the next few nights. This is crazy! Global warming my ass!:vs_mad:


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Chiefster23 said:


> Woke up this morning to 26 degrees and a light dusting of snow. After the sun's up I will inspect the damages to the trees and plants. The weatherman sez lows will be 30 degrees over the next few nights. This is crazy! Global warming my ass!:vs_mad:


WE got 1-2" of snow where it stuck, snowing now. Temp here got down to ~28-29 oF. Like you more cold nights upcoming.

I checked fruits yesterday PM, peaches had just blossomed (worried about those), pears just getting ready, apples still tight buds. Did some research last night, 29oF will give ~10% blossom death, unless we get a few more cold nights things might not be too bad for damage.

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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Chiefster23 said:


> Woke up this morning to 26 degrees and a light dusting of snow. After the sun's up I will inspect the damages to the trees and plants. The weatherman sez lows will be 30 degrees over the next few nights. This is crazy!


Curious if it is really that unusual for you to have these temps this time of year. Down here, we normally can have a freeze as late as April 15, and danged if we didn't get one on April 15 that did some damage. So surely y'all can have freezes much later than that.

The reason I had damage, and I think the reason y'all are getting damage, is not due to the late date of the freeze but due to an abnormally warm late winter and early spring. For the last bunch of years, our winters have been warmer. Our springs have gotten shorter, allowing us to plant early. But just because the winters and springs are warmer, doesn't mean the occasional late freeze won't happen. It is just now, that late freeze does so much damage because the plants leaf out & bloom earlier than normal due to the warmer winter.

Surely y'all are having warmer winters too, aren't you? I can remember being stationed in Minot ND back in 1979 - 1982. Back then the winters up there were brutal. I remember a stretch where the HIGHS never got above zero for over a month. I remember every winter the snow stayed on the ground all winter long. We called it snirt (snow + dirt). Correct me if I'm wrong, but that no longer happens. Yes, it can get cold for a bit but then a warm spell hits.

Call it what you want, but in my lifetime, climate has changed. When I grew up here in north Mississippi, we had ice skates. I lived on a maybe 50 acre lake and at least half of the winters, that lake would freeze over for us to get on the ice. I remember some older kids bringing their Volkswagen on the ice once. I haven't seen even a small pond freeze over in the past 20 years... much less a large lake. In that time period, I haven't seen a small pond get a thin layer of ice... much less enough to walk on.

In a discussion of gardening, it is not necessary to discuss why climate is changing, but as farmers one has to acknowledge things are different now than when we were younger. I can state with complete honesty, our climate here is now on average MUCH warmer than when I was a kid. What about y'all? Am I crazy? Y'all seeing the same? Are not these warmer temps in late winter and spring causing growing issues, with plants waking up earlier than normal?


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

******* said:


> Curious if it is really that unusual for you to have these temps this time of year. Down here, we normally can have a freeze as late as April 15, and danged if we didn't get one on April 15 that did some damage. So surely y'all can have freezes much later than that.
> 
> The reason I had damage, and I think the reason y'all are getting damage, is not due to the late date of the freeze but due to an abnormally warm late winter and early spring. For the last bunch of years, our winters have been warmer. Our springs have gotten shorter, allowing us to plant early. But just because the winters and springs are warmer, doesn't mean the occasional late freeze won't happen. It is just now, that late freeze does so much damage because the plants leaf out & bloom earlier than normal due to the warmer winter.
> 
> ...


Absolutely 100% correct! Years ago our average last frost date was end of May and no one planted garden until memorial day. Now last frost date is May 15. And our winters are much, much warmer. This winter (again) the ground didn't even hard freeze. Springs warm up earlier and earlier every year. That is exactly why I lose fruit production year after year. I have even tried planting trees with late blooming characteristics but that doesn't work either. It gets way too warm way too early. So I'm not worried about frost this time of year, but a hard freeze of mid twentys degrees is kind of unusual. I pushed my planting of some veggies this year and that is my dumb fault. Years past I always waited to plant anything, even cold crops. This year I decided to go early. We'll see how it all turns out. No big deal as
I can always hit up the nursery and buy more starts to replant.


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## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

Chiefster23 said:


> Absolutely 100% correct! Years ago our average last frost date was end of May and no one planted garden until memorial day. Now last frost date is May 15. And our winters are much, much warmer. This winter (again) the ground didn't even hard freeze. Springs warm up earlier and earlier every year. That is exactly why I lose fruit production year after year. I have even tried planting trees with late blooming characteristics but that doesn't work either. It gets way too warm way too early. So I'm not worried about frost this time of year, but a hard freeze of mid twentys degrees is kind of unusual. I pushed my planting of some veggies this year and that is my dumb fault. Years past I always waited to plant anything, even cold crops. This year I decided to go early. We'll see how it all turns out. No big deal as
> I can always hit up the nursery and buy more starts to replant.


What you folks up north are dealing with, I dealt with on April 15... our normal time to start planting. Since it was so warm, I planted early so when we got that April 15 frost... it did damage. Killed a few of my Asian persimmon trees, stunted my corn, and hurt even my muscadine which were starting to leaf out. Luckily, didn't hurt my blueberries and peaches, which had already bloomed and set fruit. My apples were blooming at that time, so I know they got hurt. Seems such a frost does more damage to new leaves and blossoms than to fruit already set.

This change of climate tells me I really shouldn't be growing apples or peaches anymore. Blueberries are borderline. I should concentrate on blackberries and muscadine that bloom much later. My blackberries are in bloom now and muscadine are getting started.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

I’m done planting fruit trees both because of repeated crop failures and I’m old enough now that I may not be alive long enough to see any fruit. I have all the berries I need. Other than veggies and flowers my planting days are done......... that is until the boss decides she wants some more landscaping plants put in!lain:


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

Chiefster23 said:


> I'm done planting fruit trees both because of repeated crop failures and I'm old enough now that I may not be alive long enough to see any fruit. I have all the berries I need. Other than veggies and flowers my planting days are done......... that is until the boss decides she wants some more landscaping plants put in!lain:


And I agree on the climate change. I just wish it would hurry up. I want 'no moe snow' and palm trees growing in my back yard.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

For blueberries try some early, mid, and late cultivars. Spreads out harvest and you don't loose them all to late frosts.

We have some late ones older than me, they don't have ripe fruit until early Sept.

For apples, bugs have been worse than weather, cucculio beetles lay eggs in the small fruit and many drop before the size of a jumbo marble. You can spray the trees but the pesticides are not friendly to use nor do I want them on the fruit. There are no IPMO that are organic for those little basturds. Maybe I should put up some bluebird boxes.


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