fertilizing sweet corn

[trx680]

what do you all use to fertilize your sweet corn?

[digitS']

I use an organic "lawn" fertilizer.

It is 8-2-4 and I put it on before planting seed and try to get it out there again, before any tassels show up in the corn patch.

The corn grows fairly well with it . . . but, the plants seem to get a little nervous when they hear a mower running on the grass nearby.

Steve

[stella1751]

Supposedly, corn likes blood meal, but I don't know whether or not you can top dress them. I worked lots of bloodmeal into my corn beds last year before planting, and they did very well for me!

[Yellowsnow]

Chicken and cow manure.

[bcallaha]

I incorporate a little 10-10-10 when I plant, and then when the corn is 8-12" tall, I sidedress on both sides with a little more 10-10-10.

Brad

[jal_ut]

The local Co-Op gets in some Urea, bulk by the carload, for the farmers. I just take a sack and have them put some in it. It is 42% nitrogen if I remember right. I put some on the area at planting and side dress again just before the corn tassles. This is in addition to the leaves, manure, and organic matter I put on the garden in the fall.

[lily51]

We plant at least an acre of sweet corn each year. Corn, like grasses, need higher levels of nitrogen, so we use a 20-10-20 ratio of
N-P-K.

[rootsy]

11-52-0 for starter banded 2 x 2 off the planter at a rate of 200 lb / acre and then I side dress with 28% liquid as needed per soil sampling to yield 250 lbs of N per acre. I've also been adding some 21-0-0-24 (ammonium sulfate) which gets knifed in and though I cannot quantify it at this time, my taste buds tell me that some of this corn I grow is sickeningly sweet when eaten raw vs corn grown without the added sulfur.

I have been cover cropping and spring plowing to try to reduce my salt based fertilizer requirements (and suppress weeds in later planted fields) and have been studying full season fertilizer banding off the planter so I can eliminate side dressing later on.

Urea is 46-0-0 and should be put down ahead of a rain event (unless it is incorporated and still then incorporate ahead of a rain) so that the nitrogen doesn't volatilize and release into the atmosphere.