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Interesting corn experiment!

n2organics

By n2organics

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At the edge of my property I have two “test areas” where I do A-B experiments on plants. One area is surrounded with native rocks and has had NO organic amending. It is just native soil that has been tilled, well drained, and loose.
The other area is lined with cheap plastic boarder and has been heavily amended with compost, paramagnetic volcanic sands, sugars that include dry molasses and sugar beet extract, and then topped with shredded cedar for a composting mulch.

This year I have planted about 80 sweet corn seeds in the two areas and the difference in growth size has been striking! Here is a photo:

As you can see, the difference in the size of the young corn plants is dramatic!
I am hoping to see more ears of corn per plant that the usual two or three that I saw in the farm field behind us last year.

One thing that I did during the planting process might have given the organic corn a slight advantage during the seed germination process. The corn in the native soil was simply dropped 2 inches down into the holes and back-filled with native soil. The seeds in the organic area were planted at the same depth, but were back-filled with earthworm castings to give them a rich “compost condition” that promoted early seedling root development and promote the development of Mycorrhizal Fungi in the root system.
Mycorrhizal Fungi explained
***BONUS***
I had to add this tonight because this explains a lot of this and I found the direct MP3 download source that supports the theory. Fascinating!
http://dirtdoctor.podomatic.com/enclosure/2009-05-29T13_47_03-07_00.mp3!

N2O

  • Blog posted on 11 May, 2010
  • Like count 3 likes

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Comments

angieindgarden
Angieindgar..
 

Interesting!
I guess buy next yr. u will go talk to the farmer & eventually get our food crops growing in an organic matter.
I hope u keep very good records & present them to Obama!
I think it's about time that organic farmers were subsidized instead of the crappy way our food is produced at the moment.

11 May, 2010

Genuisscuffy
Genuisscuffy
 

I'm interested in your experiments - I use a wormery and the "juice" I get from the bottom is what I feed my plants on and the casts are mixed in with compost.

11 May, 2010

n2organics
N2organics
 

Angieindgar, the farmer stopped his tractor at the edge of my property last year when I was growing three of the corn plants that I "borrowed" from his field to experiment with when they were 4 inches tall. I had planted them into that same rich organic area to see if there would be any difference. To make a long story short, it was "feed corn" that he was growing and he was amazed that two of the three corn plants had yielded more than the usual 2 ears per plant. One of them had 4 very healthy ears and he had never seen that happen in the 125 acre field. The most the he had seen was a rare 3 ear plant. We talked for quite a while about organic growing and treating the soil instead of the plant and this year he has planted feed oats that will be harvested and then have the leftovers tilled back into the soil for next year. All of that left over nitrogen and carbon rich material should turn that huge field into a giant compost pile by the next growing season! I think that he's on the right track for one heck of a spectacular crop next growing season!
~N2O~

12 May, 2010

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