What Happened to my Corn?

[Tricky Grama]

Planted 'Kandy Korn' St Patrick's day. Amended the garden w/organics 1st. Picked 2 ears last eve. One tasted like it was over done-a little tough. Even tho 1/4 of the cob was 'empty'. Other was tasty but tiny kernels & 'bout as big as a finger. (really big fat finger :) )
Watered w/compost tea early when it did not rain. Have seen a couple lady bugs & an assasin bug or 2.
Something got into it-raccoon/skunk/coyote- & ate a few immature ears. Also laid down & beat some stalks down. So this isn't gonna fare well.
But why have they not matured?

Patty

[CaptainCompostAL]

I don't know. I usually have pretty good luck every year with growing all varieties of sweet corn in my area. (Unless there is a major severe drought, like what we had here in Alabama last year.)

I usually make sure that my soil is loaded with lots of rich compost and high protein/nitrogen fertilizers (i.e. blood meal, fish meal, etc.) right at planting time. I usually plant my sweet corn any time from mid-March to mid-June. Corn loves lots of compost, nitrogen, and water. Since corn is a cousin to grass, it loves the same things that grass does!

Every 1-2 weeks, I foliar and soil drench my corn with strong high nitrogen aerated compost tea recipes, mixed with other stuff like fish or blood products too.

Corn stalks are made of lots of calcium, so I using made sure my corn beds are rich in calcium, by using dolomitic limestone mixed in my compost in the beds. I know some folks don't like using any liming products if their soil pH is "near perfect" (i.e. pH from 6.0-7.0), I believe that a little sprinkle of lime in my corn beds mixed with compost is not a bad idea, since all corn plants need calcium for strong healthy stalk growth and health. Besides compost buffers soil pH anyway!

Hope that helps.
Happy Gardening!