Spyderco1116
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Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:58 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Question about spraying corn stalk with.....

I have a couple corn stalks growing now in a very large container. The tassels are almost fully emerged. I forget the actual stage it is in.. (R1 or R2) Which I think is the reproductive stage. Anyway... I want to deter insect before the silks start to appear and the pollination process begins. I don't have an insect problem at the time, but I just wanted to deter it from happeneing. I have the Bayer soap spray. (organic) I forget the exact name. It comes in a blue bottle.
Can I spray this directly on the plant? Tassels and all? It say's it is safe for veggies, trees, flowers & fruit, but I just wanted to make sure... I actually very surprised that my corn is doing so well because this is the first time I am tryting to grow it in a container. IMO, it's the most amazing & interesting of all my garden. It is a thing of beauty to watch the different stage of the stalk grow. Gotta love Mother Nature!!! :wink:

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Kisal
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:04 am
Location: Oregon

It won't hurt the corn, but it won't necessarily protect it from whatever pests you have in mind. Soap sprays -- which you can make at home, btw -- are contact insecticides and won't affect insects that aren't directly hit by the spray when it's applied.

It's best to know what pests you're fighting so you can select an effective organic insecticide. :)

Smallgardener
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Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:18 pm
Location: SW Kansas

Just wondering how your corn turned out. Did you have insects get to it?
Did it make an edible ear.

devildocjames
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Joined: Sun May 17, 2015 1:47 pm

I have neem oil that I purchased from Lowe's. I mix about 1tbs to 25ml of water and spray away. Seems to work great and I haven't read any negative effects of it's use.

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Only a couple of corn stalks. I usually bag the tassels and collect the pollen to hand pollinate when I don't have a lot of plants to work with. Sometimes beetles will eat the tassels so bagging helps with that.

I grow a tight husk corn so even if insects get in, they don't do a lot of damage. But you can do a similar thing with the corn ears and bag them to keep the moths from laying eggs on the corn silks. I have also heard of people putting mineral oil on the silk after they have browned or seven on the corn plant after the silks start to emerge.

I haven't used sevin for a long time now, since I don't want to harm the bees or my garden patrol.

My dad uses the oil, but still has problems with beetles attacking the tassels.

With my garden patrol, and the tight husk corn, and planting slightly out of season, I don't encounter problems until later in the season in the second and third planting. Bagging the tassels and ears work fine but you have to remember to keep checking the ears and hand pollinate the silks. Corn is usually ready to pick about 10 days after the tassels appear but temperature and weather can affect that, so I feel the corn ear for how full it is after the silk starts to dry up.

I use paper grocery and lunch bags. hand pollination gives better results especially when you don't have a lot of corn plants. When you end up planting corn in a tighter space, the pollen sometimes misses the ears and ears on the perimeter of the corn block usually are not full unless they are hand pollinated.

I usually cut my tassel and shake the pollen into a large paper bag and hand pollinate the cornsilk by sprinkling the pollen over the silk with the bag underneath the ear to catch any extra pollen. I get better results especially if I did not get a good germination rate on the corn. Lunch bags usually are enough to cover the corn ears after that to keep corn ear worms and beetles out.

https://www.caes.uga.edu/extension/floyd ... etCorn.pdf
https://exchange.seedsavers.org/storage ... 658BFF.pdf



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