The price of a few cobs of sweet corn is incredibly high

I am in contact with Vern at least once a month, not for materialsbut to find out what is happening in the marsh and how this can berelated to hort matters here in the Orillia area. Vern gets inputfrom all around the southern part of the province and the scary bitthat I heard yesterday was the weather damage to both the peachcrop and to the grapes in the vineyard. I bet that the latter willhave a major effect on Ontario wines for next year. People neverrealize just how the weather can affect our crops and in turn theprice of produce that we put each day on our table.
I mentioned that I needed calcium nitrate. Calcium is the mostessential element required by tomatoes to prevent blossom-end rot.On a tomato, the blossom-end rot is opposite to the end that isattached to the stem. If there is a calcium deficiency, the endturns black and appears rotten but this is not a bacterial rot buta deficiency condition.
The reason for adding calcium is the fact that I grow my tomatoesin large black plastic containers in soilless medium and I canassure one that there is no calcium present. Tomorrow morning, Iwill scatter a couple of handfuls of calcium nitrate on the soilsurface and repeat in a week or so.
This year, my tomato plants are unreal. At the moment they arestanding almost six feet high and loaded with small fruit. I haveeight plants. Seven are my own hybrids and the eighth is a cherrytomato. One only needs just one of these because they are suchheavy fruit bearers. Every 10 days or so, each plant receives ahalf watering can of 15-15-30 water soluble fertilizer with thatlast high potassium number to promote blossoms and finally fruit.This was originally given to me by one of Plant Productsspecialists in fertilizer use and from that day to this it hasalways been a success.
One final comment about tomatoes. At the end of the season, I emptythe contents of each plastic pot which includes both the tomatovines and the soil material. The pots are then washed and storedaway until they are needed again next year. Then we will start allover using fresh soil. I stress this because one should never planttomatoes in the garden in the same place year after year. Doingthis is inviting disease infections. The same applies to potatoes.Corn on the other hand should be relocated not because of diseasebut to rebuild the soil's supply of nitrogen. I notice that thecattle-corn growers follow this rule and in some cases let thefield stand in fallow until the following season.
My friend, Ross Goddard, is giving up the idea of trying to promoteincineration and I don't blame him. Trying to promote this ideaamong local bureaucrats is like trying to make a dead horse run upa tall hill. These people are living in the Dark Ages when it comesto the concept of incineration. You tried hard, Ross.
Having mentioned corn, so far this year the price of a few cobs ofsweet corn is incredibly high and I hear that it may be a scarcecommodity. This, I am told is due to so much rain and lack of warmweather. Speaking of warm weather, this is the first year that Ican ever remember when I have been wearing long trousers every dayand today, as I sit here at my typewriter, I am even wearing asweater. The weather specialist predicted away back in the springthat we were going to have a hot, dry summer but so far I haven'tencountered any of the above.