Question: Everything in my garden has grown well except my sweet corn. It grew nice and tall in the spring and was even more than "knee high by the fourth of July." Though the plants look healthy the ears are very skinny and the kernels are small and spaced far apart. Am I being too impatient? Should I wait until the end of August before picking? Or was this a bad year for corn?

Answer: Unfortunately, if the kernels are not formed they will not fill out. It sounds like a case of poor pollination, due either to rainy weather when the pollen was ready, and/or you planted in a single or double row instead of a block. Corn depends primarily on wind to transfer the pollen to the silks (which is what makes the kernels grow), so you need to plant it in a block or cluster. Clump of 5 stalks per hill or a block 4 feet square is usually the minimum required for proper pollination. If your plot is small and you donOt mind a little extra effort, when tassels at the top of the plants start dropping their dusty pollen, you can break off a tassel and brush it against the silks of each ear on each stalk. It's time-consuming, but for small plantings it can dramatically increase pollination.