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I'm new to this forum, hope someone can help me with a small problem. I finished building raised beds for my vegetable garden this year and planted sweet corn in it this spring. I prepared the soil last summer by adding equal mixtures of topsoil, composted leaves and pete. The corn has really grown fast, and is now about three feet tall. I watered it last night and noticed that some of it has fallen over this morning. Can anyone tell me why it does this and what I can do to prevent it from happing again.

how far apart did you space it in rows?

According to the directions on the seed package, I spaced the rows 2 feet apart. The seeds were burried 1 inch deep, and the corn plants were thinned so that they were 5 inches apart in the row.

oldbiker wrote:According to the directions on the seed package, I spaced the rows 2 feet apart. The seeds were burried 1 inch deep, and the corn plants were thinned so that they were 5 inches apart in the row.

just curious, how big of an area covered did you grow this corn?


length by width in feet.

The corn is planted in two raised beds. Each of the beds measures 16 feet by 24 feet. The soil is about 12 inches deep.

The corn is probably falling over because it isn't getting the correct nutrients from the soil, or at least not enough from them. Did you add manure or some other soil ammendment to the soil befor planting?

My mother had a similar problem years ago.

I added 10/10/10 to the soil. The corn is dark green, healthy and growing very fast. So I really don't think that it lacks furtilizer. I did a search at this forum on the subject and someone else had a similar problem. They recommended planting the seed up to 4 inches deep. I planted the seed just one inch deep as stated on the package directions. My corn does have a very shallow root system, so perhaps this may be part of my problem. If anyone else has experience or knowledge with this, please help. Thanks for your input opabinia51.

I always have a few fall over. I believe it's planting depth. I plant about 2" down. Sometimes I think it gets too tall for the root structure to hold up. All I do is pack the dirt in around the plant and eventually the roots do develope enough to hold up. Could that be a nutrient deficiency? I don't know. Where I only have a few fall I think planting depth is the problem.

But then there is always a few deer roaming thru my yard

Yes, planting depth also makes a difference. I had forgotten about that.

Here's some skinny on that,

Corn should be planted from 2-4 inches in depth and the roots will only be as deep as you plant the seed because the root growth stems from the epicotyl which, pushes up toward the surface of the soil and roots do not grow down.

So yes, I agree 4 inches would help with the corn standing upright.

With regard to the 10-10-10, I am going to surmise that this is a synthetic fertilizer of sorts? Synthetic fertilizers, do provide the basic macro nutrients that plants need but, these are water soluble nutrients in the form of salts that can either be simply washed away, polluting local water supplies or if applied to often will actually accumulateand burn the plants roots.

Also, with synthetics, the plants have no way of controlling how much fertilizer they recieve and go through a quick growth spurt and the soil then has no nutrients in it to support the growth of the plant and other plants that assist in the growth in the plant that you are wishing to fertilize. (does that make sense?)

Anyway, with organic soil ammendments you feed the soil and not the plant. And when you do this you are adding nutrients to the soil that are soil stable and will be there for a long period of time, this makes it cheaper for you because you don't have to continually add things to the soil and these nutrients can be released from the soil by the plant based on what it needs. The plant will simply release a little bit of base or acid to alleviate nutrients from the soil.

These nutrients not only feed to plant but a myriad of soil flora an fauna and function as a mini ecosystem which allow whatever plants you have planted to grow being resistant to disease and being healthy.

It's actually amazing to watch how well your plants do when you use organic based fertilizers such as: Compost, composted manures, liquid fish fertilizer, liquid seaweed fertilizer, rock phosphate, kelp meal and so on.

Also, making compost is free.

Thank you very much for your kind replies. Using a hoe, I piled soil (about 3 inches deep) on both sides of the corn and I was amazed at the increase in strength of the corn to resist falling over. Next year I'll plant the seed deeper. Also, I usually germinate the corn seed indoors 3 or 4 days before planting outdoors. This really helps to get a quick start on growing.

Thanks for the advice about organic fertilizer. I used alot of organic material when I prepared the soil for the raised beds. It consists of equal parts top soil, composted leaves, and peat. This makes the soil easy to work in but probably contributes to the corn falling over since the soil is so soft. My understanding is that the composting process uses alot of nitrogen and that this can contribute to an insufficienty. The liquid fish fertilizer can probably make up for the lack of nitrogen. Would be interested in your coments on this.

Also, what do you think of bone meal (used for feeding cattle) as a source of phosphate?

Bone meal is good stuff, a general NPK value for it is in the thread labeled NPK in the ORGANIC forum. Composting adds a good amount of nitrogen to the soil, some of it is lost as Nitrogen gas into the atmoshere. And yes, liquid fish fertilizer can help to give your plants mor nitrogen but, composted manure (not chicken as it is to high in Nitrogen) would be better to add because you only have to do this once a year.

Well, I add it twice a year as I do the sheet compost thing in the fall and then, I add a little more in the spring before I plant.

Have fun with your corn!

Oh, and with my sheet composting (Apple, Linden tree, maple, hazel nut and other leaves, chicken manure in places where I don't grow corn or potatoe with horse manure and horse manure alone in the corn/potatoe areas, seaweed and so on.)
My corn is nice a green, with nice fat stalks and grows like you wouldn't believe.

So, you are on the right track.

Thanks for your very kind reply. I used to do organic gardening years ago, but sort of got away from it since this is my first vegetable garden in over ten years. You convinced me to get back to it again. Glad to hear that your corn is doing so well.

opabinia51 wrote:Bone meal is good stuff, a general NPK value for it is in the thread labeled NPK in the ORGANIC forum. Composting adds a good amount of nitrogen to the soil, some of it is lost as Nitrogen gas into the atmoshere. And yes, liquid fish fertilizer can help to give your plants mor nitrogen but, composted manure (not chicken as it is to high in Nitrogen) would be better to add because you only have to do this once a year.

Well, I add it twice a year as I do the sheet compost thing in the fall and then, I add a little more in the spring before I plant.

Have fun with your corn!

Oh, and with my sheet composting (Apple, Linden tree, maple, hazel nut and other leaves, chicken manure in places where I don't grow corn or potatoe with horse manure and horse manure alone in the corn/potatoe areas, seaweed and so on.)
My corn is nice a green, with nice fat stalks and grows like you wouldn't believe.

So, you are on the right track.

Yikes!!!! I just put some newspapers with chicken manure around my beans, tomatoes, peppers, and melons!!! Is that going to be too much nitrogen????

Staking your corn should help. Tie the corn to the stake as it grows.(for next year if your corn is to big) You could also but stakes every ft. around the patch and make a grid of string. Arought diagram below.( It's rough because its just with a keyboard LOL!!) Periods represent stakes addition signs represent the string.

. . . . . .
'++++++,
'++++++,
'++++++,
'++++++,
'++++++,
'++++++,
. . . . . .

jstr