Growing Popping Corn on a Balcony

The apartment we live in faces east, and in the morning, we get a lot of sun.  This year, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to have a little natural shade?  As corn grows tall, it seemed like a good candidate.

We successfully grew 8 popping corn plants in two large pots.  It was pretty easy - plant the seeds, water daily, fertilize.  This was not organic corn.  The plants did grow tall, but 8 was not enough to provide us with any significant natural shade.

This year, we also grew pole beans, carrots, tomatoes, sun flowers and some other potted flowers.  It was a pretty good reminder of how dependant we are on big agriculture, farms, transportation systems, food terminals, and grocery stores to economically feed ourselves.  Given the start up costs of the containers and soil, these were not economically viable crops - it was vastly more expensive to grow than to buy.

The corn did pop.  We’ll likely do this again next year.