We have been experiencing rain off and on all day today. Good for the corn, but not for measuring it's growth. About 30 minutes ago the sun was shining so we decided to give it shot. That didn't last. We got our last measurements while dodging rain drops.
The biggest disappointment so far is the Heirloom Indian corn. Still, not a single stalk. Based upon the book we borrowed from our local library 
"Grow the Best Corn" by Nancy Bubel, published in 1981, many backyard farmers (people who plant just enough to feed their families), will stagger their seed plantings. They do this so that the corn will be ready at different times rather than all at once. The question we are debating is, do we try planting it again, and if we do, how will that effect the results of our experiment of figuring out which corn grows best in Connecticut?
The biggest surprise, in rate of growth for this week, was Silver Queen. Last week nothing. This week NINE inches with 13 stalks (out of 36 seeds planted.) Runner up was Golden Bantam, measuring in at SEVEN inches and 30 plants!
The biggest horror was Delectable Hybrid. Earlier in the week when we let the baby praying mantises go we saw lots of beautiful shoots. Now many are gone, some chomped down into little stumps. We wonder if the same thing that ate the Bloody Butcher is now eating the Delectable Hybrid.
We have been under the threat of thunder storms all day. We decided to spend the day inside and work on our summer reading, taking a break this afternoon to watch the 2005 movie, "Matilda" -- in Spanish. (Mom said it would help us keep up with our Spanish studies during the summer break.) 
We were right. 
She called to us to hurry and come look. Only we were still sleepy and quickness was not the first thing on our mind.
are eating machines. They were so hungry that they started to dine on each other. That was gross! But it's what they do. So we got dressed for the day and ran outside to set them free. The pictures shown in our blog entry are from today.
We have planted all the corn varieties that take more than 90 days until harvest so we still have some time to get the last six varieties planted.
Because corn likes to drink lots of water, we need to ensure they get plenty! We have been lucky that there has been enough rain, almost like a daily shower, in our weather. The last time we needed to water the corn it had to be done by bucket!
One is bees. Some bees like to make their nests, like this one, underground. So when we're turning the soil over we need to watch for them or else risk getting stung!
We discovered yesterday that lightening hit a nearby tree and one of our neighbor's homes.
We planted the last of the 14 types we tried to pre-start weeks ago: Squaw, Strawberry, Heirloom Indian, and Lady finger.
We agree. Deer have hooves, not claws. The Kernel said this print belonged to the Buck -- the daddy deer.
We just finished planting four more varieties of corn: Broom (regular), Truckers Favorite White, Truckers Favorite Yellow, and Stowell's Evergreen. That makes nine planted of the original 14 that take more than 100 days to harvest. In looking at the calendar, that would make these ready somewhere around September 21st. We hope the summer will hang around that long!
This means it doubled it's height since we transplanted it last weekend! 
Today, after school, we were able to spend more time in our corn field, managing to plant -- or really transplant -- three more types of corn: Hickory King, Maize, and Bloom (Multi-color). We decided to plant these because they had the most sprouts.
We are disappointed that many of the varieties we pre-started nearly four weeks ago (May 25th) have of yet to sprout. Why is that? We don't think it is a container versus a starter kit issue because both had big failures. So we're wondering if it is weather related. Did that frost warning we had a few weeks back damage some of the seeds? We're not sure. Stowell's Evergreen, which 
The weather forecast says we'll be feeling 100 degrees until around 7:00 pm tonight. Since we have school tomorrow, planting after 7:00 pm will not be an option. We wonder how the colonist were able to plant their crops when they first came to America. They didn't get to wear shorts and T-shirts like we do today; they wore clothing mostly made of wool! 
We had to wait until about 6:00 last night for the weather to finally cool enough for us to work in the field that we will be growing our corn. Since we already had one tick issue, Mom made sure to spray us with repellant really good. (Ticks are nasty bugs that bury their heads in your skin and drink your blood. They can also spread diseases.)
Each will consist of four rows by nine plants. And we will space each variety 18 inches apart to allow for walking around them. This means when we're all done planting all the corn, we will have three columns of corn. We talked with our Nana, Sweet Ears, last night and she thinks that will be a lot of corn! We will have to wait and see.
Today will be blistering hot. Something close to 100 degrees. We need to get our corn planted if we have any hopes of tasting the different varieties come fall. Some of the corn seeds we planted nearly two weeks ago have of yet to show signs of sprouts. We're not sure why, but we plan on examining them closer come late afternoon when it will be cooler outside. The others that did sprout are doing well.
We told Mom how difficult it is to share the address to our blog, so she set it up as "dot com" for us. If you'd like to bookmark our blog, here is the easier address:
At the end of Week One we have seen progress with our seedlings. Many are now showing signs of sprouts, but this one to the left, is showing the most. It's name is Bloody Butcher. 
We should see even more sprouts by the end of this week.
Without the corn, as we had planted last year, that left us with plenty of space to try growing other vegetables. If the weather holds, we'll be planting more later in the week. 
He thought that we should have directly planted them into the ground. We told him that we didn't trust the weather yet. We were surprised to see the Japanese Hulless Popcorn showing the most sprouts so far.