questions for the experts!

[mrschiefmac]

Hello everyone! Haven't posted here in a while. When you have teens and middle schoolers, spring is crazy! Plus I've been a garden planting fool! :D

I have a question about my strawberries and my corn.

1st. I'm only getting a 1-10 strawberries at a time. If I wanted to save them for eating or making jam later how do I store them until I have enough to make it worth it? If you suggest freezing, will they still be edible later if I decide to not make jam?

2nd. My corn looks great this year, but (isn't there always a but?) they have those "extra" little corn plants coming up on the sides, I think they're called suckers? I keep twisting them off and they keep coming back bigger. Should I just leave them alone or do they take energy away from the main stalk that should be used for corn production?

As always, I appreciate all the info those of you who are pros sharing your wisdom.

[Lavandula Girl]

Hi! Don't know what to do with your strawberries, since ours almost never even make it into the house, but in regards to the corn, leave to suckers, they don't sap the strength. I refer to Jim Crockett for a lot of my veggie info, and he says the suckers don't reduce the corn productivity, and actually strengthen the plant. I've always had good yields, even in backyard beds where we only had about four rows, and I never worried about the little side shoots.

[winter_unfazed]

Corn suckers aren't "bad" suckers like tomato ones are; they're "good" suckers. If you have a very old variety of corn, as I do, you might even get small ears of corn off the suckers.

[lovetogarden]

I cannot help you with the corn, but as for strawberries, if you want a large quanity at once, plant June bearing varieties. The June bearers produce a large quanity all at once compared to the day neutral or everbearing.

What variety of strawberries do you have planted now?

[mrschiefmac]

thanks for the reply.

I have 2 kinds. I know one for sure is Sequoia. The other, I'm not sure. I picked it up at the local Target Nursery and I forgot to plant the tag in with it. I have 2 of them and they aren't looking so good. They produced a few berries in June and haven't seen anything since. It is awfully hot here though, I was kinda waiting until the fall cool off (around oct-nov) to see if they'll start producing again.

[mrschiefmac]

Corn suckers aren't "bad" suckers like tomato ones are; they're "good" suckers. If you have a very old variety of corn, as I do, you might even get small ears of corn off the suckers.


I planted Jade blue, Ruby Red and sweet white corn, so I would have red, white and blue corn. pretty cool huh? All of them looking lovely. All of the more mature ones have suckers on the sides and since I posted here, it seems that suckers are not a bad thing and I stopped twisting them off. I hope you're right and I get a couple of bonus little corns!! ;)