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Article: Corn Bred; Small Plantings Work, With a Helping Hand
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 11, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Even within the confines of the home vegetable garden, corn is
expected to grow in a field of its own. So when I sowed just a few
plants in a small raised bed, the skeptics scoffed, my husband among
them.
A stand of corn four feet across and eight feet long? Impossible,
they said. There won't be enough plants for successful pollination,
and the ears will never form.
Raised beds aren't for corn anyway. Corn should be planted in big
blocks dozens of feet in length. And so on.
The skeptics were fooled. I got the best yield I'd ever had. What
the corn patch had lacked in the number of plants, it made up in
fecundity: Each stalk bore one or two exquisite ears, with virtually
no pest problems.
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