Corn – Poor Pollination

Q: There doesn’t seem to be a good supply of bees this year. How will this affect the development of my corn?

A: It won’t hurt your corn crop at all. Corn pollen is distributed by wind. Rainy weather, like we had early in June, might inhibit pollination somewhat.

Two other vegetables are more likely to be hurt by wet weather. Tomatoes are also pollinated by wind but humid weather causes the pollen to be so sticky it doesn’t move much. This can be alleviated by tapping bloom clusters with a pencil twice each day.

Squash pollination is affected because pollinating insects are kept at home by rain. You can perform squash pollination by rubbing the stamen of a male flower onto the pistil of a female flower.