Made a mess of my corn patch

[DawnSuiter]

I stationed some chickens in part of the corn patch this winter in a 10 X 10 dog run. All winter I layered in the stuff... started with dirt/clay then some wood chips, then some leaves, then some straw, then some leaves and some more straw... then the rain.. so more straw and more straw and more straw



I didn't figure it was a big deal.. in between each layer is chicken poop & food bits, feathers etc.

But... um.. it's SO GROSS now that I got everyone out of there and have started turning it all over. It's like fish tank YUCK or maybe worse!!

Is this a lost cause for this season? Can I whip it back into shape by May? It's seriously a large amount of straw.. which I could mostly scrape off the top.

But when I turn over a pitchfork full.. it's black down there.. almost grey like ashes... and smells awful.. ontop of that is a thick layer of wet leaves and of course ontop of that is the straw.

Before I spend endless hours wasting my time out there, I thought I would turn to you all for advise....

please don't tell me to soil sample yet... there IS NO soil anymore... just WAAAAY down there.. it's about a foot & a half deep with "stuff" on top. Last year it was plantable.. a mix of clay, woodchips & top soil.. but now.. OMG.

I'm hopeless

Last Year:

NOW

 

[patandchickens]

Ah, the old "more is better" theory

I would guess that a significant part of your problem may actually be just that it is still too wet to work or to finish breaking down? (What is the soil like there right now, moisture wise?) You may well find that as things warm up and dry out further, it becomes less stenchy and also more workable.

Once the soil IS workable i.e. not excessively wet, I would suggest turning it all together as best as you can. This will involve either a LOT of hard work with a shovel and digging fork (b/c you will need to turn things *deep* and *thoroughly*) or find someone who will lend you a really serious tiller and run that back and forth a bunch of times, possibly removing the worst of the straw first (rake to the side) if it fouls the tiller tines too badly.

And then, give it a try. Corn seed is not that expensive, the worst that happens is it doesn't work If nothing else you should have the makings of an excellent pumpkin or squash or melon patch there

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[DawnSuiter]

Oh Pat, thank you. I feel so much better.. and yes as usual you are correct, it is a bit early in the season to work it and it is VERY VERY wet here.. puddles everywhere really after a fair bit of rain the last few days.

Ok.. I will keep at it.

One day [some year far in the future]... this will all be a BEAUTIFUL garden

 

[digitS']

. . . One day [some year far in the future]... this will all be a BEAUTIFUL garden

I don't doubt it, Dawn. And, you may not need to wait a year. The month of May might be too early, tho' . . . or, it may not be.

Pat suggested that you've got a pumpkin (and such) patch in the making. I bet that's true. Some plants may have so much nitrogen that they can't get around to fruiting or flowering or doing much of anything but rapid growth.

You may need to go with "gross feeders" for a season. Squash & pumpkins are gross feeders. So is corn. Sunflowers may be a choice even if they can't get around to blooming and producing seed. Sunflowers can be planted close together and those big leaves won't allow anything else grow around them.

Another "big leaf" plant is cabbage. I'm not very familiar with them but collards may be a better choice for you.

You probably need to actually import some soil to get things started. You know, little pockets of actual dirt or lay it out in a row and plant seed in it or set out your transplants there.

You'll get it into production or, turn it all into a compost pile for a year and move that around in 2011.

Steve

 

[DawnSuiter]

We are planning on a truckload of fill dirt next week... that'll be about 1/2 ton of fill dirt for the corn.... I've got to put about a 1/4 ton in other places and thats a comfortable amount to shovel in a day (NOT)

oh.. I hope that helps...

I was hoping to try some pumpkins around the base of my corn this year... I hear they work happily together.

and then squash after that.

I don't understand about the nitrogen stuff... I'm really UN educated when it comes to the science of planting.

 

[lupinfarm]

lol don't worry, I'm down a somewhat similar path. I threw in a couple bags (15kg) of half-composted horse manure this year into one of my raised beds and I'm starting to wonder whether that was a really great idea or a really stupid one haha, oh well live and learn!

 

[silkiechicken]

When I end up with a mess of straw like that, I just dig a large shovel hole of dirt out spaced at 3 feet apart or so, and transplant in a zucchini, squash, or pumpkin plant. Let it go for the season, eat goodies, and use the spot for corn the following year.

 

[seedcorn]

Just an opinion, I'd pull the straw aside(in what will be the center of the row), plant corn into the ground. When corn is about 6" tall, pull the straw back around the plants. Eat sweet corn later.

If you work that much straw into the ground, the microbes in the ground will tie up all your nitrogen trying to break down the fiber. You will have to foliar feed your corn if it turns yellow. I'd use a good foliar nitrogen like CoRoN (it has some Sulfur in it as well). Buy from local fertilizer plant.

 

[ducks4you]

DawnSuiter, you are panicking.
I'm doing exactly what you are doing, EXCEPT, I don't have to haul in the dirt from someplace else. I'll be bringing it in from the horse turnout and putting about 4-6 inches on top. Think of all the articles you've read about how composted vegetation will fertilize ALL season. And, when you bury it, the bacteria, and fungus and worms have an easier time breaking it all down.

I think that we ALL had a hard winter, and cannot WAIT to get our fingers dirty in the soil!! HERE, we're getting temps in the 60's, but it's gonna drop down this weekend, and snow!! That just makes it worse to garden in. Give yourself a break. It's not to late to start your seeds outside, or to start them inside. Sure, I got tomatoes by the 4th of July last year...I started them inside in FEBRUARY, and got them in the ground in APRIL...then, they drowned all summer!! (NOT doin' that again.) My MIL didn't start her (zone 5) gardens until early April, and the warm weather crops weren't in the ground until Memorial Day. Had great gardens, anyway!!

 

[DawnSuiter]

It's 70 and sunny today. Whoo hoo.
I'll take advantage of that and rake off what I can of the straw. I'll just pile it up around the walkway around the corn. So that the ground underneath can see some sun!

Ducks.. I was hoping to get some more cool weather crops in. If I don't have them in the ground this week, I won't be able to in this space. By April 15th last year.. this garden was the Sahara Desert! It's difficult to nurse plants through the hot dry season here which is coming in just a couple of weeks.

I think its weird but usually in the spring, the rains miss us. It rains EVERYWHERE around us... except higher in the mountains. The storm has to be STRONG in order to really seem to rain on us.

In fact, I've been collecting 2 liter and 1 liter bottles for just this purpose. My idea is to put a PIN HOLE or needle hole at the bottom of the bottle and bury it with each plant, so that the bottles slowly leak out and help get us through those few weeks.

Thanks everyone for supporting me...