Corn and Mycorrhizae

The first picture shows two corn stalks, one that has extra stems on the bottom and the other one doesn't. Nature did this, not me. A few years ago there was quite a controversy as to whether the extra stems needed to be removed to improve the corn production. The conclusion they came to was that it made no difference.

Corn should be nice and green. If it is kind of yellowish, then likely it needs to be fed, and is in need of nitrogen. An easy way to give the corn nitrogen is to apply chicken manure (not fresh or it will burn).

Something else I have been finding in my garden are mushrooms! These are small and very fragile. They are under the plants and in the straw pathways. This is a good thing as it indicates that I have mycorrhizae in the root zone of my soil. Mycorrhizae is a fungus (you might have seen it before when pulling up old vegetable plants--it looks like tiny white threads) that connects tree-, shrub-, and plant-roots, and exchanges nutrients and water between them. This is a symbiotic relationship between the fungi and the plants, as the fungi is fed by the plants. Mushrooms are the spore-bearing reproductive organs of the fungi. I will post more about mycorrhizae another time. Just know that it is a good thing to have as it is very beneficial to the garden, yard, and especially in the forests.