"The actual cost of a thing is the amount of life you give for it."... Thoreau. Growing my garden has a rate of exchange unlike any other. The money that i have frittered away over the years on travel and fishing and evil habits dwarfs the meager expenses of furnishing a first-class backyard garden operation. The satisfaction is beyond price. Even back breaking labor doesn't feel like work. Potatoes went into their containers just today. Tomatoes are under lights waiting for Memorial Day to plant out. An interesting and thoughtful program tonight. Thanks.
Thumbs up but putting fishing in with those other things is sacrilegious. LOL. An uncle once joked that time spent fishing can never be held against you. I miss it, no time. Grace
@@johnglad5 I treasure the memories of the years spent on the water, but I'd like to have back all the cash I spent for boats and tackle. The cost of gardening is just a fraction of the expense of scratching that itch. Thoreau also famously said that "Many men spend their lives fishing without realizing that it is not fish they are after." For me, at least, having a backyard grocery store is just the gravy.
@@markware4933 My family saved to buy a boat and all the extras. So my dad could have a stress outlet on weekends. We discovered the amount and variety of fish, plus sandbar shellfish when we got tired of being dry and baking in the sun, was a great way to feed us all. Plus other families. We caught the baitfish with bread ends. Not much consumable fishing costs, until we would cut a line. When they got to the age they couldn't really go often, the boat and sundries sold for a good price. Family has zero regrets about that purchase or our years of experiences.
This proves the power and benefit of good, living soil. If you put seeds/plants in a healthy environment, they'll do all the hard work and thrive. Unlike store-bought corn, you'll also be able to keep all the biomass for composting, chicken feed, etc...as well. Cheers from N. FL.
I made an investment for my garden this year and installed drip irrigation on everything. The amount of time I run it has greatly been reduced compared to the old impact sprinklers. The other benefit is I don't spend hours pulling weeds in between the rows. So it was worth every dime I spent. Great video
We're saying goodbye to the Florida weave after this crop.our tomatoes are growing so fast and bushy that it's a tough job keeping up. We're going back to making more baskets out of rolls of concrete mesh. They virtually last forever, and it's not as much trouble keeping them trained. Your corn is looking great.
I use that heavy duty 4 inch netting as a trellis and weave the plants as they grow. Use those 5 foot light duty t posts. Never Goin back, use this system for anything that needs trellises. PTL
Nice video. Sorry people are giving you a ration of grief on your planting methods. There is something to be said about gardening for the pure enjoyment of it - not to mention better flovor. Best wishes from Kate in Olympia, WA - 5/13/2023.
Travis, your growing methods are fine! I grow a sweet corn variety called Montauk and it’s worth every cent! Trust me, what you get in return is tenfold!
Your right about staying up with that Florida weave business, got busy with some other things and before I knew it I had some tomatoes over 5' t-posts...oh well, still good looking crop of tomatoes.
I missed you when you stopped doin vids. Now i miss your dad now that he has stopped doin vids. Appreciate all the vids you put out. Dont know how you find the energy and the time. God bless and health
Corn is 3.98 for 4 ears of fresh sweet corn at Walmart. You could count the drip as well and still come out on top. I have never seen organic sweet corn at a grocery store either so that's a plus too. Even if you can't eat it all you could dry the ears for your chickens as a treat.
I'm growing a smaller version of how Travis planted his sweet corn. I have three double rows making about 200 row feet. I don't use drip irrigation because my soil retains water fairly well. Most years, natural rainfall is enough if I plant in early April. Like Travis, I make sure they have water once the first tassels show. My corn is now about knee high and laid by. Depending on how they look in a few weeks, I might give them a boost of calcium nitrate. I applied compost and diammonium phosphate preplant. I will probably spray once or twice for earworms. Seeds are my biggest cost in growing sweet corn. I don't think I have more than $5 total invested.
Love learning but I "gotta guy" that twice a year sells huge burlap bags of fresh picked white shoepeg out of his box truck at the corner store. 😉 He does a great job growing my corn! 😆
hi travis grew this method double row at 30 inches apart wirh drip tape 12inch drip spacing 4 double rows so double harvest of peaches n cream 45 by 12 ft. aproximent measure. we ended up 99 % germination will grow this method from now on thanx for your videos travis ...we harvested in late august and had a very good harvest and put up 70 quarts and sold the rest next year i am going with six inch emitters .
I started a big garden last year, bought a tiller, drip irrigation, and some fittings. Besides the tiller it didn't cost alot. But seeing how successful I was with just the 1500 ft I had, this year I have 9 30x35 plots. The most money I've spent is on fertilizer and rigging up an all-in-one hose system to connect all my drip irrigation. If it all works then next year will cost less since the irrigation is done and I can focus on soil health
The corn is beautiful Travis, there's nothing better than fresh corn cooked in a cast iron skillet in the oven with plenty of butter added. I like mine to get slightly brown, yummy. It's also good cooked in the shucks in the microwave for adding something quick to the peas, beans, new potatoes and sliced tomatoes and some cornbread and iced tea. Maybe some fried chicken as the protein part of the meal but I could eat all the above without any meat.
This is interesting. Unless my math is wrong, 1,000 ears is 83 dozen from 1,050 square feet. That's roughly 3,400 dozen per acre. Wow! Another good one!
Really miss seeing your boys and your wife in your videos. Hopefully they will be included when you harvest the potatoes, Tater Time. Still very much enjoying your videos. Thanks
It's all an investment. As someone that had to restart their garden a few years ago because of a big move and could not take anything from my old garden with me, the initial cost was high. I spent hundreds of dollars on fert and insecticides even though most of those will last me years for my size garden and yard. With the cost of compost and everything, I probably only broke even after my second year (as my first two years were not very good with me getting used to the climate here and my beds being new with no real organic life yet --- couldn't even find a worm in my whole yard when I first moved in). I have tried to go the 'cheap' route myself before, but it didn't really pan out as I do this for a hobby and don't have much time. There are many things that I do to save cost: my own seed starting with my own cheap mix that I make, making a small amount of my own compost, saving select seeds, making my own biochar, etc. However, I still find buying good fert and insecticides worth it. The things I do to save money are things I do because I like doing them and they are part of my lifestyle (e.g., I make biochar while I am having cookouts in the summer). Could I save more? Sure, if I needed to, but I don't do this as a homesteader. I have a 50+ hour job and it is nice to be able to go out and just throw out a couple hand fulls of blood & bone when the garden needs it as opposed to draining off worm castings or growing comfrey and using it as green waste. I also use synthetic ferts for some things as well, because they are easier. Its all relative to what you want out of your garden. I think you do a great job balancing the two sides (i.e., large scale and back yard gardening) on this channel and why I watch this one over others when I have a free moment.
Great looking corn Travis. I believe in you do you and I will do me. Everyone has different priorities on what they want to spend their time and money on. I will spend more money on indestructible bottom trays and Winstri air prune nursery trays this year than I ever thought I would but I’m going to because I want to buy trays one more time. I had no idea that word would be so controversial. I think you're right, just goes to how some folks think. Love watching your videos.
Love your videos and how you address those mythbusters😂 some of my taters are drying back a little early. But each planting I get better results. Also my corn always ends up with a lean from the winds. Show us how you prevent that.
We hill our corn, which helps stabilize the plant. I also try to plant with the wind. That doesn't always work because the wind doesn't always blow in the same direction. But we try to plant it in the direction it normally blows.
They're still around -- well 2 of them are. The other 3 have been hit by a car at some point over the last year as they were going back and forth from their home to here. People drive fast on our road and don't pay attention unfortunately.
I know of 4 open-pollinated varieties of sweet corn: Golden Bantam 12-roll improved, Country Gentleman, Who Gets Kissed and Hawaiian Supersweet #9 I have only grown the Bantam it is not as sweet as todays sweet corn but sweeter than field corn. Just for info OneOldMan
Have a couple to add to this list. Fisher's Earliest (we really liked these, but like all the old fashioned need to be eaten or put up within hours of harvest!), and Damaun KS Supersweet (haven't tried that one yet, in plans for next year).
Are our methods too expensive? Let us know what you think! SHOP LAZY DOG FARM FIG TREES: lazydogfarm.com/collections/fig-trees 0:00 Intro 0:40 Can We Grow Corn on Double Rows? 4:19 How Much Does It Cost to Grow Corn? 9:00 The Best Looking Potato Plants We've Had! 10:19 Adding String to Our Florida Weave Trellis 11:39 Adding String to Our Indeterminate Tomato Trellis
Hey Y'all, Happy Mother's Day Brooklyn! I hope y'all have a blessed day. I like the double row idea. When y'all figure the cost of the plot did you add in the cost of the copper hat you wore while planting? Did you add in the cost of the extension cords in case you have another drought summer with no thunder and lightning? Last question do you think lightning bugs would help the "electric culture"?
Here's a blog on our website that has links to all the pieces we use: lazydogfarm.com/blogs/garden-journal/drip-irrigation-checklist And if you watch that recommended video at the end of this one, it will show you the step by step setup.
For me, it's more of a space issue in the garden. Things like leafy greens, herbs, etc, are more cost-effective than growing sweet corn. Besides, corn grows like a weed in Illinois 😂, so we have a good source of farm fresh corn that's fairly inexpensive and "organic" is twice as much, but it's only 4-5🌽/$1
Was that a Lazy Dog Farms hat you had on? Love your stuff Im new to this and your a Wealth of information even your old Videos with Hoss. Keep up the great work.
I wonder if the plants being so close to each other if that may result in less pollination. If it poses no problem then the double row method is the way I will go next year.
It has refused to rain in my area of north Florida this year, I can not get enough moisture with drip tape to sprout my seeds. To heck with the cost, I bought a sprinkler head and from now on I will run it to get my plants up. I have planted my sweet corn four times and have zero plants. I got 1/3 stand with my flint corn and 1/4 with my peanuts.
I just got a injector for my corn I have heard a Lon of (this is the best no you need this ) what is the best injectable for corn an any other crops I presently have agree thrive
What do you do about the ear worms? I've tried growing sweet corn in my backyard garden in the southeast (USA) many times, always had problems with the worms. Go to pick an ear and frequently find worms inside the ear. Just curious for advice.
Spinosad works great for corn worms and it's organic. Here's a link: amzn.to/43atdfG Be sure to spray the silks when they start to appear and I usually spray every week or two between initial silk appearance and full maturity.
I would talk trash but my early corn actually rotted in the whorl in 7b. First time in over 40years of growing sweet corn I seen that. Cold and wet got me I guess. My early corn is always a risk.
I do Florida weave with my indeterminates in north Florida using 6' posts every 2 plants. But, it gets so hot here that the heat and bugs stunt the growth by the time the plants get that tall. It definitely gets harder and messier toward the end. I do it mainly because the posts take so much less room to store that heavy duty cages.
With so much water and the corn in double rows, do you ever have problems with powdery mildew? I live near the coast in So.California where the afternoon winds brings a lot of moisture. I have to spray with Monterey Disease control or copper soap to deter PM.
Also get PM on cucurbits, but not so far, all the years we've lived here in South Carolina, on sweet corn. Ours are planted even more densely, and are regularly beaten during tasseling to help sort out pollination. Every time I've tried giving them more room, they take longer, causing insect pressure, and we get less corn. Trying to get OP sweet corn to seed would be where things like that might show up for us. If they could make it past the insects.
Hi Travis, I have a question for you. I am doing the double row sweet corn with drip tape. The corn is roughly 5 ft tall. Nice and green. The tassels are starting to show, yet no ears have started to show from any nodes. Am I misunderstanding when the ears should start showing, or what could have gone wrong? Thank you, and of course I enjoy your videos.
They love it south of the border. I remember seeing a lot of corn smut when I was a kid, but I can't remember the last time I've seen it on an ear I've grown. Not really sure why we don't see it as much anymore.
You don't have to self-pollinate it, but I sometimes will take a long piece of pipe and brush it over the top of the plants. This helps shake some of that pollen down to the silks.
How do the seed producers create these Hybrids? For example, how do they make new Silver Queen seeds every year? Is there a way to make a hybrid into a stable variety that you don't have to buy new seeds of every year?
Yes, hybrids can be stabilized over time. A guy I know in Virginia has created a stabilized hybrid of Seminole Pumpkin and Waltham Butternut Squash. It took him many generations of seed, but it's a great variety. He calls it South Anna Butternut. I'm not sure how the sweet corn hybridization process works.
Seed growers have two open pollinated varieties and plant them on alternate rows. They cut the tassels off one variety and the seeds produced on those plants are the hybrid. Often there is another round of plantings.
Nay sayers are everywhere these days. I had never really put a pencil to cost until this year. We’re keeping track of all the seed we buy, fertilizer and such. At the end of the year I will figure up how many cans of veg or heads ect… and do a cost diff. I am having a problem and maybe you can tell me what I am doing wrong. This is my second year of growing snapper, Bella Rosa….. the full line all the way to the hossinator. Last year, lots of vine, no tomatoes. This year they look horrible, like they have never been fed. I gave some trifecta and others espionage bio tone. They are watered. Admittedly we are in the process of running all new drip. It just has to stop raining first. Not flooding rains, perfect 1 inch soaking rains. HELP! What have I messed up now????
Wet soil has a different color than dry soil. Run it until you see that saturation around the extent of your plants. Every soil is different. Hard to run it too long on corn though. It will soak it up.
For the sake of time and keeping up with it. I usually just run mine for a longer period every few days. I've heard that things like tomatoes prefer more frequent watering at lesser amounts, but haven't ever tested it.
Commercial grown sweet corn on sale is at least 25 cents an ear. It won't taste near as good as home grown like you have so yes you are definitely saving money by growing your way for a high quality product.
I always spray to my right, which is my wand hand. And so I'm not walking through rows that have already been sprayed. I just kind of hold the wand above the rows and spray down on them. That's really the only way to do it by hand when it's planted that thick.
@@LazyDogFarm I planted some corn in double rows last year and I couldn’t get both rows sprayed good without getting it all over me. That was my issue with double rows. I’ve planted my taters in double rows this year. We shall see how that goes.
I grow half the amount of corn than you and my cost break down analysis is exactly half of what yours is..........if my math is correct we are spending the same 😂
Cover crops pay for themselves easily. A $20 bag of cover crop seed will feed my chickens for a couple months, which is much cheaper than chicken food. Not to mention the eggs we get in return.
My year is going horrible man , I used some bagged compost to top off the rows since the place I buy compost from typically made a 8 yard minimum and I have about 32 tomato plants that are curling on the tops of all of them not sure if it has some broad leaf herbicide in the manure or if it may be a chemical thing to assist in the breakdown of the compost but there all screwed up along with several peppers and cucumbers as well not a good year
I think the initial cost of the drip irrigation is what gets most people. We have to pay our power bill regardless. And gardening is supposed to save us money at the grocery store as well as letting us eat more healthy. My wife is already on me about the garden costing me more than the grocery store. I would love drip irrigation but I just can't afford to go buy it. So even though it pays for itself eventually I can't swing the initial cost
Wow and u use all hand cultivation tools no tractor plow seeder back in the 1970s I sold sweet corn for 1 buck 75 Canadian for one dozen and then the women picked over every cob topping off the leaf cover to look for the best. Now2022 there is no sweet corn grown in Ontario sweet corn needs heat snd irrigation and nitrogen now the stores sell at buck a cob four at a time. Yhatswhat u get for being so dam cheap Travis skills are a dying breed thumbs up to Travis
Well, I disagree about discounting the drip system. The cost of those materials would be helpful to your analysis. I have a well, too. Overhead irrigation doesn't cost me very much. Installing drip lines and rigging up a way to patch it into my well system would not be inexpensive. I realize you can reuse much of the rigging, but still...
Hard to put a cost on the fittings because I've used those so many times on other plots. But the tape we used in this plot is about $0.12 per foot. With approximately 270' of tape in place, you're looking at roughly $33. Considering I use at least 1/4 less water than overhead irrigation, it easily pays for itself.
I agree with that comment, your methods are NOT realistic. What you offer is the example of how a garden could be if we invested the time. Your way of gardening is top notch. it is very hard for us average gardeners to invest the time and energy.
My Wife and I work full-time, I also weight lift 5 nights a week. I garden the way he does just on a smaller scale. I also have fruit trees, 3 different types of berries and lots and lots of flowers. Sounds like many people are lazy.
@@autohelix life just has a way of getting out of hand. Most people that would watch a video like this i bet are not lazy. For example, i have 3 kids a full time job and a business. His methods are what can happen when life has not got out of hand
@@that9blife465 Not a fan of people who make excuses for everything. He has 3 kids a wife that works. He runs a business and he makes UA-cam videos. Which I can tell you from experience is quite time consuming. Life is about priorities. Make it a priority and it is achievable. We all have the same 24 hours. You don't have to have thousands of square feet of garden plots, but the way that he gardens is very achievable, and is really not that time consuming if done on the appropriate scale based on your needs.
I’ve had a lot of failures, but I’m determined to learn from my mistakes and improve each year. My biggest failure so far is trying to do too much at one time with little knowledge!
So why don’t you go on and tell everybody how much it cost for your irrigation drip system real fast so we can go on and know exactly how much it cost? The reason is is because how much that irrigation system cost is about 10 years to the average gardeners expenses.
Drip irrigation is really not that expensive. It's hard to assign a cost to this particular corn plot, because those fittings used in that plot have been used 10-15 times in other plots. We'll also reuse the tape in that plot at least 2-3 more times. If you were buying all the pieces new and not reusing them, it would probably cost around $50-$70, but it's not a single-use system.
That darn topic that you didn't mention this week is gaining way too much fan fare. It has been brought up so much in recent months, I just had someone in the love your liver network bring it up and I don't think she appreciated my rebuttal to the validity of growing plants with "chi" and "lifeforce". Kind of frustrating but the world is full of morons, I was aware before this topic became all the rage.
Don't quit your day job to become an accountant! You can't ignore the cost of seeds, nor can you ignore the cost of the drip system (though you can amortize each component over however many years of use you expect to get from them). I'll let you get away with ignoring the cost of your labor, since most people growing sweet corn in their garden are engaged in a hobby pursuit rather than a job. I'll also let you ignore property taxes on the plot, since you would own the plot whether you grew anything on it or not, and a corn patch isn't usually a taxable improvement. The price per ear of corn probably still isn't terrible, but you need to eat it all to make sure you maximize value. Personally, I would never eat 1,000 ears of sweet corn in a year's time.
Those seed and irrigation costs definitely get counted come tax time. But my main goal here was to compare my "growing methods" and the cost of those. Since everyone has to buy sweet corn seed and everyone has to water it, those would be negligible for comparison sake.
@@LazyDogFarm I actually consider the alternative to growing sweet corn to be not growing it at all rather than growing it some other way. That likely explains my rather different perspective on what counts as a cost that should be considered. For the record, I do grow corn, but it's heirloom field corn. That's trivial to save seeds for and requires less irrigation, plus my soil has better moisture retention than your sand, so my irrigation circumstances are also quite different.
"The actual cost of a thing is the amount of life you give for it."... Thoreau.
Growing my garden has a rate of exchange unlike any other. The money that i have frittered away over the years on travel and fishing and evil habits dwarfs the meager expenses of furnishing a first-class backyard garden operation. The satisfaction is beyond price. Even back breaking labor doesn't feel like work. Potatoes went into their containers just today. Tomatoes are under lights waiting for Memorial Day to plant out. An interesting and thoughtful program tonight. Thanks.
Great comment. I completely agree.
Very true. Hard to put a monetary value on satisfaction.
Thumbs up but putting fishing in with those other things is sacrilegious. LOL. An uncle once joked that time spent fishing can never be held against you. I miss it, no time. Grace
@@johnglad5 I treasure the memories of the years spent on the water, but I'd like to have back all the cash I spent for boats and tackle. The cost of gardening is just a fraction of the expense of scratching that itch. Thoreau also famously said that "Many men spend their lives fishing without realizing that it is not fish they are after." For me, at least, having a backyard grocery store is just the gravy.
@@markware4933 My family saved to buy a boat and all the extras. So my dad could have a stress outlet on weekends. We discovered the amount and variety of fish, plus sandbar shellfish when we got tired of being dry and baking in the sun, was a great way to feed us all. Plus other families.
We caught the baitfish with bread ends. Not much consumable fishing costs, until we would cut a line. When they got to the age they couldn't really go often, the boat and sundries sold for a good price. Family has zero regrets about that purchase or our years of experiences.
This proves the power and benefit of good, living soil. If you put seeds/plants in a healthy environment, they'll do all the hard work and thrive. Unlike store-bought corn, you'll also be able to keep all the biomass for composting, chicken feed, etc...as well. Cheers from N. FL.
I made an investment for my garden this year and installed drip irrigation on everything. The amount of time I run it has greatly been reduced compared to the old impact sprinklers. The other benefit is I don't spend hours pulling weeds in between the rows. So it was worth every dime I spent. Great video
Yeah I didn't mention the reduction in garden maintenance time when using the drip, but that's definitely part of it.
We're saying goodbye to the Florida weave after this crop.our tomatoes are growing so fast and bushy that it's a tough job keeping up. We're going back to making more baskets out of rolls of concrete mesh. They virtually last forever, and it's not as much trouble keeping them trained. Your corn is looking great.
The Florida Weave is tough if you don't stay on top of it. I ran my 4th and 5th lines of string today and I almost waited too long.
I use that heavy duty 4 inch netting as a trellis and weave the plants as they grow. Use those 5 foot light duty t posts. Never Goin back, use this system for anything that needs trellises. PTL
Nice video. Sorry people are giving you a ration of grief on your planting methods. There is something to be said about gardening for the pure enjoyment of it - not to mention better flovor. Best wishes from Kate in Olympia, WA - 5/13/2023.
Travis, your growing methods are fine! I grow a sweet corn variety called Montauk and it’s worth every cent! Trust me, what you get in return is tenfold!
Country Gentlemen a shoepeg variety is good if your into seed saving, makes GREAT creamed corn IMO
Your right about staying up with that Florida weave business, got busy with some other things and before I knew it I had some tomatoes over 5' t-posts...oh well, still good looking crop of tomatoes.
I can’t believe you have corn so soon 😮
We are getting so much rain in North Miss; I've already have had to replant and my corn and it's only 6-8" tall. Very envious of your stand.
I missed you when you stopped doin vids. Now i miss your dad now that he has stopped doin vids. Appreciate all the vids you put out. Dont know how you find the energy and the time. God bless and health
I never stopped, I just changed channels. I started this channel within a week of resigning from Hoss in early 2021.
Corn is 3.98 for 4 ears of fresh sweet corn at Walmart. You could count the drip as well and still come out on top. I have never seen organic sweet corn at a grocery store either so that's a plus too. Even if you can't eat it all you could dry the ears for your chickens as a treat.
Just got 5 ears at publix for $2 waiting on my peaches and cream to tassel.
@@hardstylzz5024 Nice, have you ever seen organic corn at the store?
@Matthew King maybe whole foods but I don't go there much, you use your whole paycheck hence the nickname.
So, here in south TX, in the heightth of corn season we can get 5 ears for $1.00. So that would mean $200.00 for 1000 ears of corn.
Always one Internet garden master giving advice or talk 💩
Ignore them
Good video
You forgot to include the price of all those copper antennas so the aliens can find your corn and make them grow better.
😂
😆😆😆
😮
I'm growing a smaller version of how Travis planted his sweet corn. I have three double rows making about 200 row feet. I don't use drip irrigation because my soil retains water fairly well. Most years, natural rainfall is enough if I plant in early April. Like Travis, I make sure they have water once the first tassels show. My corn is now about knee high and laid by. Depending on how they look in a few weeks, I might give them a boost of calcium nitrate. I applied compost and diammonium phosphate preplant. I will probably spray once or twice for earworms. Seeds are my biggest cost in growing sweet corn. I don't think I have more than $5 total invested.
Impressive! You're lucky you don't have to worry about soil moisture. We finally got rain tonight, but we had gone a couple weeks without.
Love learning but I "gotta guy" that twice a year sells huge burlap bags of fresh picked white shoepeg out of his box truck at the corner store. 😉 He does a great job growing my corn! 😆
Haha! I bet he does!
hi travis grew this method double row at 30 inches apart wirh drip tape 12inch drip spacing 4 double rows so double harvest of peaches n cream 45 by 12 ft. aproximent measure. we ended up 99 % germination will grow this method from now on thanx for your videos travis ...we harvested in late august and had a very good harvest and put up 70 quarts and sold the rest next year i am going with six inch emitters .
Awesome!
Your growing methods are great. I have over 5 acres. I follow your methods and it works!
You get what you put in better seed better crop drip a must you have to fertilize returns are worth the investment
I started a big garden last year, bought a tiller, drip irrigation, and some fittings. Besides the tiller it didn't cost alot. But seeing how successful I was with just the 1500 ft I had, this year I have 9 30x35 plots. The most money I've spent is on fertilizer and rigging up an all-in-one hose system to connect all my drip irrigation. If it all works then next year will cost less since the irrigation is done and I can focus on soil health
build a massive worm bin and you wont pay for fertilizer again
The corn is beautiful Travis, there's nothing better than fresh corn cooked in a cast iron skillet in the oven with plenty of butter added. I like mine to get slightly brown, yummy. It's also good cooked in the shucks in the microwave for adding something quick to the peas, beans, new potatoes and sliced tomatoes and some cornbread and iced tea. Maybe some fried chicken as the protein part of the meal but I could eat all the above without any meat.
I read your commentary now I'm starving.
Yummm yummm, and where exactly do you live?
This is interesting. Unless my math is wrong, 1,000 ears is 83 dozen from 1,050 square feet. That's roughly 3,400 dozen per acre. Wow! Another good one!
Really miss seeing your boys and your wife in your videos. Hopefully they will be included when you harvest the potatoes, Tater Time. Still very much enjoying your videos.
Thanks
It's all an investment. As someone that had to restart their garden a few years ago because of a big move and could not take anything from my old garden with me, the initial cost was high. I spent hundreds of dollars on fert and insecticides even though most of those will last me years for my size garden and yard. With the cost of compost and everything, I probably only broke even after my second year (as my first two years were not very good with me getting used to the climate here and my beds being new with no real organic life yet --- couldn't even find a worm in my whole yard when I first moved in). I have tried to go the 'cheap' route myself before, but it didn't really pan out as I do this for a hobby and don't have much time. There are many things that I do to save cost: my own seed starting with my own cheap mix that I make, making a small amount of my own compost, saving select seeds, making my own biochar, etc. However, I still find buying good fert and insecticides worth it. The things I do to save money are things I do because I like doing them and they are part of my lifestyle (e.g., I make biochar while I am having cookouts in the summer). Could I save more? Sure, if I needed to, but I don't do this as a homesteader. I have a 50+ hour job and it is nice to be able to go out and just throw out a couple hand fulls of blood & bone when the garden needs it as opposed to draining off worm castings or growing comfrey and using it as green waste. I also use synthetic ferts for some things as well, because they are easier. Its all relative to what you want out of your garden.
I think you do a great job balancing the two sides (i.e., large scale and back yard gardening) on this channel and why I watch this one over others when I have a free moment.
thanks
Great looking corn Travis. I believe in you do you and I will do me. Everyone has different priorities on what they want to spend their time and money on. I will spend more money on indestructible bottom trays and Winstri air prune nursery trays this year than I ever thought I would but I’m going to because I want to buy trays one more time. I had no idea that word would be so controversial. I think you're right, just goes to how some folks think. Love watching your videos.
Put a radio when they start producing ears
Weather I can afford it or not, I get a lot of valuable info from your videos! Thanks!
Love your videos and how you address those mythbusters😂 some of my taters are drying back a little early. But each planting I get better results. Also my corn always ends up with a lean from the winds. Show us how you prevent that.
We hill our corn, which helps stabilize the plant. I also try to plant with the wind. That doesn't always work because the wind doesn't always blow in the same direction. But we try to plant it in the direction it normally blows.
Your garden is beautiful, I sure wish I was your neighbor! 🌽I was wondering where are the ducks, I loved their visits with the melons last year 🦆🦆🦆🦆
They're still around -- well 2 of them are. The other 3 have been hit by a car at some point over the last year as they were going back and forth from their home to here. People drive fast on our road and don't pay attention unfortunately.
Thanks Travis. First Rate Again! Lots of info i will watch it again to absob it better. Cheers, Chuck in Jensen Beach.
The corn looks fantastic! I haven't had much luck growing it, I'll have to give it another try.
Super vid super information 💪👍 Travis...as always thanks!!
I know of 4 open-pollinated varieties of sweet corn:
Golden Bantam 12-roll improved,
Country Gentleman,
Who Gets Kissed and
Hawaiian Supersweet #9
I have only grown the Bantam it is not as sweet as todays sweet corn but sweeter than field corn.
Just for info
OneOldMan
Great information!
Have a couple to add to this list.
Fisher's Earliest (we really liked these, but like all the old fashioned need to be eaten or put up within hours of harvest!), and
Damaun KS Supersweet (haven't tried that one yet, in plans for next year).
Are our methods too expensive? Let us know what you think!
SHOP LAZY DOG FARM FIG TREES: lazydogfarm.com/collections/fig-trees
0:00 Intro
0:40 Can We Grow Corn on Double Rows?
4:19 How Much Does It Cost to Grow Corn?
9:00 The Best Looking Potato Plants We've Had!
10:19 Adding String to Our Florida Weave Trellis
11:39 Adding String to Our Indeterminate Tomato Trellis
I can't wait to see how we know when to harvest Taters. I am on your schedule...pretty much. You do get hotter,faster then me. I planted Feb.20
Loves yalls videos man. Always learning new. My corn is doing great because of you bro.
I've found the ends and outside rows to always be a bit behind than the center of my plot.
I've noticed that even in the large acreage fields too.
Everything looks good!
Love your videos. Keep them coming please. When did you plant your corn? Growing in the Seattle area,, so just putting our seeds down.. Thank you
We took a little gamble this year and planted mid-March.
Hey Y'all, Happy Mother's Day Brooklyn! I hope y'all have a blessed day. I like the double row idea. When y'all figure the cost of the plot did you add in the cost of the copper hat you wore while planting? Did you add in the cost of the extension cords in case you have another drought summer with no thunder and lightning? Last question do you think lightning bugs would help the "electric culture"?
Edges always grow less. Less competition for nutrients and light
Can you do a video on how you set up an water your corn also what materials you use?
Here's a blog on our website that has links to all the pieces we use: lazydogfarm.com/blogs/garden-journal/drip-irrigation-checklist
And if you watch that recommended video at the end of this one, it will show you the step by step setup.
Thanks bro.
Love your channel! Keep up the GREAT work!
Thanks Ken!
For me, it's more of a space issue in the garden. Things like leafy greens, herbs, etc, are more cost-effective than growing sweet corn. Besides, corn grows like a weed in Illinois 😂, so we have a good source of farm fresh corn that's fairly inexpensive and "organic" is twice as much, but it's only 4-5🌽/$1
Yeah it's not the most space effective veggie for sure.
End rows and wind/lee edges are always stunted. Nothing you did; it's just how it is. Same thing happens with milo.
How are things in Georgia It's wet in Newport TN Richard
Wet here the last two days. Went a couple weeks without any significant rain and then got a lot.
Was that a Lazy Dog Farms hat you had on? Love your stuff Im new to this and your a Wealth of information even your old Videos with Hoss. Keep up the great work.
Nah that's a hat I got from Appalachicola, FL.
I wonder if the plants being so close to each other if that may result in less pollination. If it poses no problem then the double row method is the way I will go next year.
I'm a little worried about that. But I took a long piece of PVC today and shook the tassels to help ensure good pollination.
You are the MAN love your videos
Thanks Julia!
It has refused to rain in my area of north Florida this year, I can not get enough moisture with drip tape to sprout my seeds. To heck with the cost, I bought a sprinkler head and from now on I will run it to get my plants up. I have planted my sweet corn four times and have zero plants. I got 1/3 stand with my flint corn and 1/4 with my peanuts.
After direct-seeding, I have to run my drip all night to basically soak the entire plot. I can usually get pretty good germination that way.
I just got a injector for my corn I have heard a Lon of (this is the best no you need this ) what is the best injectable for corn an any other crops I presently have agree thrive
Agrothrive works well if you want to stay organic. Just be sure to clean your drip filter regularly because it can cause it to clog sometimes.
What do you do about the ear worms? I've tried growing sweet corn in my backyard garden in the southeast (USA) many times, always had problems with the worms. Go to pick an ear and frequently find worms inside the ear. Just curious for advice.
Spinosad works great for corn worms and it's organic. Here's a link: amzn.to/43atdfG
Be sure to spray the silks when they start to appear and I usually spray every week or two between initial silk appearance and full maturity.
I would talk trash but my early corn actually rotted in the whorl in 7b. First time in over 40years of growing sweet corn I seen that. Cold and wet got me I guess. My early corn is always a risk.
Have you ever done Florida weave on indeterminate tomato plants?
I have, but they always outgrow it and I end up with just a mess. It works until they get taller than the posts though.
I do Florida weave with my indeterminates in north Florida using 6' posts every 2 plants. But, it gets so hot here that the heat and bugs stunt the growth by the time the plants get that tall. It definitely gets harder and messier toward the end. I do it mainly because the posts take so much less room to store that heavy duty cages.
With so much water and the corn in double rows, do you ever have problems with powdery mildew? I live near the coast in So.California where the afternoon winds brings a lot of moisture. I have to spray with Monterey Disease control or copper soap to deter PM.
We get powdery mildew on cucurbits, but haven't ever really dealt with it on corn.
Also get PM on cucurbits, but not so far, all the years we've lived here in South Carolina, on sweet corn. Ours are planted even more densely, and are regularly beaten during tasseling to help sort out pollination. Every time I've tried giving them more room, they take longer, causing insect pressure, and we get less corn. Trying to get OP sweet corn to seed would be where things like that might show up for us. If they could make it past the insects.
What do you use to spray for leaf footed bugs?
Azera
Hi Travis, I have a question for you. I am doing the double row sweet corn with drip tape. The corn is roughly 5 ft tall. Nice and green. The tassels are starting to show, yet no ears have started to show from any nodes. Am I misunderstanding when the ears should start showing, or what could have gone wrong? Thank you, and of course I enjoy your videos.
Tassels usually come before silks.
@LazyDogFarm Thanks Travis.
What about corn smut? I heard that stuff is delicious!!!
They love it south of the border. I remember seeing a lot of corn smut when I was a kid, but I can't remember the last time I've seen it on an ear I've grown. Not really sure why we don't see it as much anymore.
It is! I grew some last year Anne fried it up… tasted like sweet corny mushrooms
@@LazyDogFarm yeah, I saw a youtube show about sweet corn farmers in Mexico keeping the smut for themselves like it was a bonus. I wanna try it.
Gm when you have to self pollinate corn when or how big to start self pollinating the silks thank you
You don't have to self-pollinate it, but I sometimes will take a long piece of pipe and brush it over the top of the plants. This helps shake some of that pollen down to the silks.
@@LazyDogFarm thank you for responding and thanks for the tip. Your double rows looks great hope they produce a good yield have a great weekend
What do you suggest for slugs and snails.
SLUGGO! it works great.
Should I include weeding cost that can be a big bill
How do the seed producers create these Hybrids? For example, how do they make new Silver Queen seeds every year? Is there a way to make a hybrid into a stable variety that you don't have to buy new seeds of every year?
Yes, hybrids can be stabilized over time. A guy I know in Virginia has created a stabilized hybrid of Seminole Pumpkin and Waltham Butternut Squash. It took him many generations of seed, but it's a great variety. He calls it South Anna Butternut. I'm not sure how the sweet corn hybridization process works.
Seed growers have two open pollinated varieties and plant them on alternate rows. They cut the tassels off one variety and the seeds produced on those plants are the hybrid. Often there is another round of plantings.
Thanks for your answers!
Always great 😊
nice
Nay sayers are everywhere these days.
I had never really put a pencil to cost until this year. We’re keeping track of all the seed we buy, fertilizer and such. At the end of the year I will figure up how many cans of veg or heads ect… and do a cost diff.
I am having a problem and maybe you can tell me what I am doing wrong. This is my second year of growing snapper, Bella Rosa….. the full line all the way to the hossinator. Last year, lots of vine, no tomatoes. This year they look horrible, like they have never been fed. I gave some trifecta and others espionage bio tone. They are watered. Admittedly we are in the process of running all new drip. It just has to stop raining first. Not flooding rains, perfect 1 inch soaking rains. HELP! What have I messed up now????
I don't grow corn for the simple fact that I can buy it dirt cheap locally and it would take up room in my raised beds. 😊
What do you use for leaf foot bugs
Azera
How long should I run my drip irrigation if I have clay soil?
Wet soil has a different color than dry soil. Run it until you see that saturation around the extent of your plants. Every soil is different. Hard to run it too long on corn though. It will soak it up.
Is it better to run it shorter times everyday or longer every 3 or 4 days for all plants in your garden?
For the sake of time and keeping up with it. I usually just run mine for a longer period every few days. I've heard that things like tomatoes prefer more frequent watering at lesser amounts, but haven't ever tested it.
Been watching you and your dad doing your gardens long time I think you all on the job I can do everything you all do
Commercial grown sweet corn on sale is at least 25 cents an ear. It won't taste near as good as home grown like you have so yes you are definitely saving money by growing your way for a high quality product.
How do you spray your corn all over and not get the spray all over you?
I always spray to my right, which is my wand hand. And so I'm not walking through rows that have already been sprayed. I just kind of hold the wand above the rows and spray down on them. That's really the only way to do it by hand when it's planted that thick.
@@LazyDogFarm I planted some corn in double rows last year and I couldn’t get both rows sprayed good without getting it all over me. That was my issue with double rows. I’ve planted my taters in double rows this year. We shall see how that goes.
I grow half the amount of corn than you and my cost break down analysis is exactly half of what yours is..........if my math is correct we are spending the same 😂
You cannot put a price on home grown, organic corn that makes you sustainable.
You left out the cost for the cover crops, and chickens.
Have to deduct cost of eggs/meat if you do that, and savings to weed reduction, time to prep soil if weedy, added fertilizer costs without chickens.
Add on another 35 bucks than.
Cover crops pay for themselves easily. A $20 bag of cover crop seed will feed my chickens for a couple months, which is much cheaper than chicken food. Not to mention the eggs we get in return.
My year is going horrible man , I used some bagged compost to top off the rows since the place I buy compost from typically made a 8 yard minimum and I have about 32 tomato plants that are curling on the tops of all of them not sure if it has some broad leaf herbicide in the manure or if it may be a chemical thing to assist in the breakdown of the compost but there all screwed up along with several peppers and cucumbers as well not a good year
Meant to add in that the corn is looking great though man double rows may be the way to go from now on
Oh no. Sorry to hear that. Hope they turn around
I think the initial cost of the drip irrigation is what gets most people. We have to pay our power bill regardless. And gardening is supposed to save us money at the grocery store as well as letting us eat more healthy. My wife is already on me about the garden costing me more than the grocery store. I would love drip irrigation but I just can't afford to go buy it. So even though it pays for itself eventually I can't swing the initial cost
Wow and u use all hand cultivation tools no tractor plow seeder back in the 1970s I sold sweet corn for 1 buck 75 Canadian for one dozen and then the women picked over every cob topping off the leaf cover to look for the best. Now2022 there is no sweet corn grown in Ontario sweet corn needs heat snd irrigation and nitrogen now the stores sell at buck a cob four at a time. Yhatswhat u get for being so dam cheap Travis skills are a dying breed thumbs up to Travis
Well, I disagree about discounting the drip system. The cost of those materials would be helpful to your analysis. I have a well, too. Overhead irrigation doesn't cost me very much. Installing drip lines and rigging up a way to patch it into my well system would not be inexpensive. I realize you can reuse much of the rigging, but still...
It's inexpensive.
It's worth every dollar
@@williamcobb1408 I agree it could be a good investment for someone like Travis. For me? I'm not trying to harvest 1,000 ears of corn....
@@jackwest5123 Have you priced a drip system for your garden? I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Hard to put a cost on the fittings because I've used those so many times on other plots. But the tape we used in this plot is about $0.12 per foot. With approximately 270' of tape in place, you're looking at roughly $33. Considering I use at least 1/4 less water than overhead irrigation, it easily pays for itself.
I agree with that comment, your methods are NOT realistic. What you offer is the example of how a garden could be if we invested the time. Your way of gardening is top notch. it is very hard for us average gardeners to invest the time and energy.
My Wife and I work full-time, I also weight lift 5 nights a week. I garden the way he does just on a smaller scale. I also have fruit trees, 3 different types of berries and lots and lots of flowers. Sounds like many people are lazy.
@@autohelix life just has a way of getting out of hand. Most people that would watch a video like this i bet are not lazy. For example, i have 3 kids a full time job and a business. His methods are what can happen when life has not got out of hand
@@that9blife465 Not a fan of people who make excuses for everything. He has 3 kids a wife that works. He runs a business and he makes UA-cam videos. Which I can tell you from experience is quite time consuming. Life is about priorities. Make it a priority and it is achievable. We all have the same 24 hours. You don't have to have thousands of square feet of garden plots, but the way that he gardens is very achievable, and is really not that time consuming if done on the appropriate scale based on your needs.
@@autohelix lol excuses..? I enjoy your view but it is not accurate. And noone cares what your a fan of.
4 ears of corn cost 6 dollars in Hawaii.
That's crazy!
Wow.
Yup, they are fat though but the ends are cut off for packing, I don't buy them.
Organic Artichokes on the smaller side 6$ each, I won't buy them.🥵
2 dollars and 39 cents per pd. for Russets potatoes at Safeway and other markets
my garden looks pathetic.
I know the feeling 😂 it’s my 3rd year gardening and I’ve learned a lot but I’ve got a long way to go.
I’ve had a lot of failures, but I’m determined to learn from my mistakes and improve each year. My biggest failure so far is trying to do too much at one time with little knowledge!
So why don’t you go on and tell everybody how much it cost for your irrigation drip system real fast so we can go on and know exactly how much it cost? The reason is is because how much that irrigation system cost is about 10 years to the average gardeners expenses.
Drip irrigation is really not that expensive. It's hard to assign a cost to this particular corn plot, because those fittings used in that plot have been used 10-15 times in other plots. We'll also reuse the tape in that plot at least 2-3 more times. If you were buying all the pieces new and not reusing them, it would probably cost around $50-$70, but it's not a single-use system.
That darn topic that you didn't mention this week is gaining way too much fan fare. It has been brought up so much in recent months, I just had someone in the love your liver network bring it up and I don't think she appreciated my rebuttal to the validity of growing plants with "chi" and "lifeforce". Kind of frustrating but the world is full of morons, I was aware before this topic became all the rage.
The response to that video helped explain a lot of things as far as how some folks think.
Don't quit your day job to become an accountant! You can't ignore the cost of seeds, nor can you ignore the cost of the drip system (though you can amortize each component over however many years of use you expect to get from them). I'll let you get away with ignoring the cost of your labor, since most people growing sweet corn in their garden are engaged in a hobby pursuit rather than a job. I'll also let you ignore property taxes on the plot, since you would own the plot whether you grew anything on it or not, and a corn patch isn't usually a taxable improvement.
The price per ear of corn probably still isn't terrible, but you need to eat it all to make sure you maximize value. Personally, I would never eat 1,000 ears of sweet corn in a year's time.
Those seed and irrigation costs definitely get counted come tax time. But my main goal here was to compare my "growing methods" and the cost of those. Since everyone has to buy sweet corn seed and everyone has to water it, those would be negligible for comparison sake.
@@LazyDogFarm I actually consider the alternative to growing sweet corn to be not growing it at all rather than growing it some other way. That likely explains my rather different perspective on what counts as a cost that should be considered. For the record, I do grow corn, but it's heirloom field corn. That's trivial to save seeds for and requires less irrigation, plus my soil has better moisture retention than your sand, so my irrigation circumstances are also quite different.