Comment by digitalsushi
Comment by digitalsushi 5 days ago
This is a new years resolution question barely in disguise, but they're fun cause a lot of us are cooped up, barely 4 days into winter, 86ish to go, and we're champing at the bit for change.
I am pretty sure I'm a 50th percentiler. I'm mid 40s, kinda burned out but still struggling forward in my ok-but-not-hollywood IT career, I still have a passion for doing things well in a technical society that values doing things cheap (and well). The things I am known for being good at, I still google daily, and for a long time, I've been hungry for a change - any change - but especially one that isn't chaotically negative.
So in 2026, I wanna learn how dirt works.
I actually have a giant box of dirt sitting on a shelf at the UNH community co-op soil analysis lab, waiting to give me some kind of data about the soil behind my house. (Or is it dirt? I don't know what I'm getting into).
In 2024 I tried growing some corn. It never sprouted.
In 2025 I tried growing some corn. It sprouted and a few ears had enough kernels to make one full mouthful. Tasty, but maybe 7 calories of food for a year of effort.
So in 2026 I'd like to grow: one entire fully formed ear of sweet corn. Anything else is a bonus.
That's what I wanna develop in 2026 - learning how soil works enough to make it make a thing. Small moves, Ellie.
Great hobby!
A couple of things about corn. It might not be soil at issue. Germination depends on correct temperature and moisture. Too much moisture the seed will rot or not have enough air to germinate. Too little moisture it won't trigger germination. Too deep it won't germinate, too shallow and germination won't happen either because it will dry out instead of staying moist. Seeds vary in depth they require and some even require light to germinate (doesn't apply to corn). It's a bit of an art figuring out what "even moisture until germination" is, and this varies based on soil type. Timing of planting with correct temperature is important.
Each kernel of corn has one silk. The silk is analogous to a Fallopian tube with pollen traveling down into the ovary (or kernel of corn in this case). If you have an ear of corn with only a few kernels it's often because pollen didn't land on all the silks. For this reason corn is usually planted in blocks. It's wind pollinated so wind shakes pollen off the tassels or male flowers at the top, down onto the silk. But if you just have one corn plant in isolation, or a row in isolation it's easier for the pollen to just blow away or miss. Planting in blocks or "array of arrays" configuration helps the pollen to reach the silk more uniformly as pollen from the surrounding plants is released.