Facts about growing Corn

[rainbowgardener]

Jeez, James! I do not have 12 x 12 that I am willing to turn into a corn patch! I don't believe that means I can't grow corn. We have had people write in here who have successfully grown corn in containers.

Here's one with pictures:
I fit 11 corn stalks per 30 gallon SIP tote:



https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... 17#p349017

Maybe I am wrong, which will be determined in a few more weeks, but there is more than one way to skin a cat. What you keep telling us is is right for you and for people like you who have plenty of room. I am not yet believing that the rest of us can't grow corn.

[jal_ut]

So have at it, and best of luck.

Maybe I don't belong here? I guess I am a farmer not a gardener.....................

[rainbowgardener]

You belong here and you have taught us (including me) a lot! And inspired us with your beautiful pictures of mountains and abundant harvest (even in such a short season)

I was just trying to suggest that maybe you could be a little more open to the idea that some of us without your advantages have to and can do things differently.

I expect all family farmers (not necessarily the giant corporation agribusiness types) are gardeners. But not all gardeners are or can be farmers.

[applestar]

Hear hear!

You are showing us how these plants can grow to their potential, James. And then we are able to compare and measure our efforts against those examples. Thank you so much for sharing your garden with us.

[RadRob]

It really comes down to what works for you and your situation but the row space testing has been going on for years. This guy explains it really well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgriLjxaVlg

[Gary350]

I keep tilling my garden larger and larger every week it is now 33' x 59'. I have always wanted to try what James is doing and plant a patch of corn then wait about 3 weeks and plant another corn patch. I know corn does poor in small crops so I was always afraid to try that. My garden is now wide enough to plant 4 rows of corn 32" apart 2 spots 12' long each.

[RadRob]

I planted 5 33' rows, the row bed width is 18" and I double planted the row with about 8" between the double rows in each row bed and the rows are about 35" apart. That gives them plenty of room and I doubled the yield.

I should've just planted 2, wait a few weeks and planted 2 more to spread out the harvest.

[rainbowgardener]

Just something I found interesting. My little stand of corn was all leaning over pretty severely. It is almost always breezy here and the corn was leaning with the prevailing winds (and toward the most direct sun). I tried straightening it up a few times, packing dirt around the base, but in a day or so it would be leaning over again, so I gave up. But then the corn grew itself prop roots and straightened itself up! Magic!

[MichaelC]

...when I allowed volunteer Matts Wild Cherry to climb all through the corn patch...

Those MWC fruits are really easy to drop unnoticed when picking them, aren't they? I've got my own volunteer this year, in a fairly convenient location. I'm planning on letting it grow au naturel to see what happens.

[jal_ut]

Two or three short rows of corn is better than one long row. It gets pollinated better when there is a "patch". I also know that if corn is too crowded the inner stalks will not have any ears. It needs some space to gather sunlight, but also needs company for the pollination.

A 4 foot by 4 foot corn patch? I wonder if 16 plants in that much space would work? I guess its worth trying?

[rainbowgardener]

"A 4 foot by 4 foot corn patch? I wonder if 16 plants in that much space would work? I guess its worth trying?" Nice to see you considering the options for us city/suburbs folks. That is exactly what I have a 4x4 with 16 corn plants in it. Corn is now around 4' tall with lots of tassels (but green yet), no visible ears so far. Growing like crazy - taller every day. Keep you posted!

[rainbowgardener]

I actually had 17 corn plants in there -- planted 20 seeds and 17 sprouted. But a week or so ago, just before they started making ears, I noticed that two of them were getting shaded out and pretty stunted. With James's advice about spacing ringing in my ears, I pulled two of them, so now 15. I also pulled two from the next succession planting leaving 14 in that block.

All but a couple of the corn plants are now showing ears and the remaining ones may yet and about half of them are now showing two ears and the rest may still develop more. So far so good!

Now my task will be to try to protect them from insects and critters!

[jal_ut]

Corn is a big plant it needs space. It also needs company so it gets pollinated. I would not plant anything else with it. Just corn in a bed or patch. If you want enough corn to do anything with you should plant a corn patch. Make it 12 feet square and put four rows of corn in that space. Plants spaced 8 inches to a foot in the rows. Variety will make a diff too. Try a mid season sweet corn.

[lakngulf]

I've had decent luck growing corn different ways. I grew up helping in a garden with many rows of corn, peas, etc. So at my Mother's house, with lots of space, we plant in rows and have good success

rows of corn



At home I have little space and squeeze in the corn wherever I can. As you can see these stalks look healthy and are producing some nice ears.

[rainbowgardener]

So here's my report back so far. I ended up with 15 corn plants in my 4x4' bed. Every one of them made one ear of corn. Many of them looked like they might make a second one, but the little second ears lower down, never filled out at all.

However, all the ears we have eaten so far, have had filled out kernals only for the first two thirds or so. The top third of the ear isn't filled out. I'm assuming that is a pollination issue and that waiting longer at this point won't help?

So it's a plus and minus. They did all make ears, but perhaps with more space they would have gotten more complete pollination?

[applestar]

This is just a guess, but I think in a small patch fresh tassels with plenty of viable pollen can run out because weather conditions can cause tassels to form way before silks. In a larger planting, seed germinating and individual plant growing variations can stagger their maturity enough that younger/later maturing plants tassels start producing pollen even if earlier silking plants run out of pollen.

...Another reason to stagger planting/starting even with small/tiny patches of hand pollinated corn. I'm envisioning the solution might be growing a tightly packed sacrificial later starters just for the tassles and pollen.

[Gary350]

Corn will not pollinate well in low humidity or high temperature. If you touch the corn silks they feel sticky for only a few days during peak time for pollination. TN has high humidity so that is good. I am not sure how hot is too hot for corn to not pollinate. When I lived in AZ humidity was low about 5% my first year crop it was 114 degrees when it make silks and tassels, silks never felt sticky and the ears had no kernels. The second year I planted earlier corn it made silks and tassels in 95 degree temperatures ears had scattered kernels about 25 per ear. Third year I planted corn Nov 1st temperature was 70 degrees during the day when it made tassels and the ears still had only about 35 kernels per ear. I planted another corn crop 3rd week of Feb after last frost when corn tasseled I sprayed silks with water then pulled the tassels and hit them on the silks still the ears only had scattered kernels about 35 per ear. Lot humidity seems to me more of a problem that high temperature. Farmers in AZ plant corn 1" apart it is so close together the stalk touch each other, it makes no ears, corn is cut for silage. Your corn problem seems like it could be 2 things, crop too small for good pollination and maybe summer temperature was too hot at the time of pollination. It is not too later to plant another crop of corn. I planted another crop of corn yesterday and I will plant another one in July and August.

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah I was thinking about that. I planted a second patch of corn a month after the first. By then it was HOT. The plants started tasseling and then making ears when they were still only about a foot and a half tall. Now they all have ears, but the ears just don't seem to be filling out. With the first batch, I did some hand pollinating. There were several days when I could shake it and a cloud of golden powder would come out and I could catch some of it on paper. With the second batch, there has never been a time when I could get it to produce any visible pollen. So I'm thinking the heat made it so it wouldn't pollinate. I know a lot of tomato varieties won't pollinate if it is too hot - the pollen denatures, gets sticky and clumpy.

I did a third block of corn a few weeks later. The first and third are silver queen. The middle one was some bicolor. The second batch of silver queen is looking way healthier than the bicolor ever did. Getting very big, very deep green and no sign of tasseling yet. So I don't know if it is a varietal difference in heat tolerance?

If I get a patch of ground freed up, I will try another block later. I need to get busy and build the rest of my circle gardens! (But it is hard, heavy work to do with temps in the mid 90's all the way from now til the end of June.)

[jal_ut]

Interesting. Thanks for the report. You may also consider trying different varieties. You may find one that works well in your circumstances. My local garden store had 11 varieties of corn seed, plus popcorn. Even I, with lots of space, am not going to plant that many varieties.

[imafan26]

I have planted corn for a few years in my tiny patch. It has gotten smaller since the aloe has been expanding to take up the space but in the early days an 8x4 sq ft space I consistently planted corn about 10 inches apart. Not every thing would come up and I only plant one seed in the hole. I averaged 47 plants and 67 ears. I would sometimes get unfilled ears, but that mostly happened when it was especially windy and the tassel pollen got blown away too early. I averaged one ear per plant with about half of them making a smaller second ear. Most of the second ears would be spotty unless I bagged tassels and hand polinated. Some would make third ears, but by then there was not much pollen left to polinate them.

I have less space now because of the encroaching aloe and the Jamaican oregano so I can only get 39 plants in roughly a 6x4 space. The increased density has actually meant that I get fewer than one ear per plant at about 20 ears average with some spotty second ears. So, what James says is correct there is a density where yields are limited when plants don't get enough of their own space.

I never gave the plants 30 inches between rows but I think a density of more than 1 plant per square foot is detrimental. I had most of my unfilled ears on the outside, but with increased density, I had more gaps in the ears on the inside.

I don't always bag my tassels. I did it a couple of times when it was very windy because I did not want the pollen to blow away before the corn silks came out. Hand polinating can increase yields for people with small gardens.

Every time I grow corn I get a few 2 or 3 that like to sucker and a usually at least one or two "mutants" were the ears and the tassels form together. Usually I have an ear that tries to form a tassel or an ear that forms huskless.

I grow tropical corn so I have not had issues with pollen clumping. But I was told that would be a problem with Brandywine tomatoes too and it did not happen and I definitely have high humidity.

[jal_ut]

My corn patch this morning. Its growing in this nice warm, sunny weather.

[Taiji]

That's gonna be one nice harvest! I have 3 small patches; each about 6 feet by 8 feet.

[KitchenGardener]

My corn patch this morning. Its growing in this nice warm, sunny weather.

That surely is a sight to behold!

[lakngulf]

My corn patch this morning. Its growing in this nice warm, sunny weather.

Nice!! That should work

[applestar]

Went to Hmart today and they had these in the freezer. I didn't buy it, but did take a picture. (Don't ask me it's been a loooong day )




...I might be in the mood to try them next time -- the colors are intriguing for sweet corn. I wish they were vacuum packed though.

[Taiji]

This year I planted Ambrosia for the first time thx to the folks on this forum. It's really wonderful. We have been having corn on the cob for about a week or 2. These guys are already blanched, stripped off the cob, and in freezer bags for side dish servings, and for dumping into vegetable soups this winter.

I had always planted Bodacious before, and the Ambrosia texture and sweetness if fully equal to what Bodacious was. I would say the Ambrosia ears on average are maybe half inch to an inch longer than Bodacious, which means a little more corn for your buck. As you can see, ears filled out to the end, and no earworms.

This year, I did a couple things differently with the corn. Planted it about a month earlier. I had always thought corn was as tender as say, cukes, but then realized it can handle some cold. Also, fertilized it twice with some ammonium sulfate, (good for us here with alkaline soil) once at about 6 to 8 inches high, and one more time just before or at tasseling. Am really pleased! Thx. for the tips! Next year will plant more, but stagger plantings.

[jal_ut]

My Ambrosia is just starting to tassel. Time to go put a radio in the corn patch to scare off the raccoons and skunks.

[Taiji]

Can't wait to see it! As smart as raccoons are, I'm surprised they don't turn off the music, or at least change the station to something they like!

Forgot to give the vital statistics. My plants are about 8-10 inches apart, 6 to a row; another row about 20 inches away; then another 2 rows like that but about 3 feet from the first double row. (It's just the way my "beds" are set up) Each plant with a couple of exceptions gave 2 nice ears. One plant tried to give 4 ears, don't know why. None of those 4 were that great. I did notice that the plants on the ends of the rows seemed to give slightly bigger ears, not a lot bigger, but it was perceptible. Probably had a little less competition down at the end. Speaks well for giving things enough space if you can manage it.

[jal_ut]

[Gary350]

I planted Silver Queen again this year, I did a 12' by 12' corn patch with 4 rows, each row 3 feet apart like James suggested. Seeds are 6" apart. Corn is ready to pick so I picked 4 ears for lunch and 4 ears for dinner. Pollination on this small patch is excellent but I still only get 1 ear per plant as usual. Even with better row spacing and full sun only 3 plants out of 100 made 2 ears. All these ears will not be ready to harvest on the exact same day more Sunday, more Monday, more Tuesday but those 3 plants with 2 small ears each don't look like they will be ready for about 10 more days, they are at least 2" shorter than the single ear plants and smaller diameter ears. My next corn crop will be ready in 3 more weeks.

I have been planting Silver Queen long enough it is time to try something different next year. I bought some white sweet corn a few weeks ago at the farmers market that was very good called Super Queen, maybe I will try that next year. I would like to get 2 ears per plant if I could but maybe Silver Queen won't do that. I need to talk to the growers at Farmers Market to see how many ears they get per plant for Super Queen.

[Taiji]

I have a garden in 2 locations this year. (lots of running back and forth) At the higher elevation spot I planted Silver Queen. I have never planted it before. I didn't know you only get 1 ear per plant. I don't know if that is normal or not. My spacing is the same as I did with the Ambrosia described above. I will say that the plants are much taller than the Ambrosia. Some of them are now approaching 8 feet. The Ambrosia topped out at about 6 to 6 1/2 feet. I'll be anxious to see if I get only one ear per plant or not.

Your Silver Queen looks great though!

[rainbowgardener]

I planted silver queen twice this season and a bicolor in between. All of them only made one ear per plant.

[applestar]

I think variety must make a difference. I'm mostly experimenting as usual, so I can't say anything for certain, but I'm growing an accidental cross for fun this year as well as a variety called Mirai 350BC bi-color supersweet hybrid corn. I described the interesting growth characteristic of the cross last week, and those are TIGHTLY packed in a tiny little space so it's not the spacing. The "hybrid" is a cross of Kandy Korn hybrid sweet corn and Glass Gem which is basically a flint/field corn though some have said it can be popped for popcorn.

Subject: Applestar's 2016 Garden

Kandy Korn x Glass Gem F1 in the itty bitty VGB bed are going bananas.



...due to the tight space and crowded conditions, only three stalks seem to be growing to their potential, but these three each have three silks emerging per stalk.
They are way too tall for me to attemp hand pollinating. Contenting myself with shaking the stalks and flapping the tassles. The runty stalks have their purpose though, they are just the right height to flap the tassles at the lowest silks.

In the Sunflower House, Kandy Korn x Glass Gem F1 are the tallest in the front-right quadrant of the bed. Here, I'm collecting pollen from any tassles I can reach and pollinating any silks I fancy, though I mostly concentrate on silks on the outmost stalks as well as secondary silks low down on the stalks and blocked by overlapping leaves.

__first Mirai 350BC cobs are almost ready

__the Mirai 350BC which were the first to start silking are completely "contaminated" in the secondary silks. Haha. I'll probably randomly save a couple of these to mature and see what kind of seed kernels I get.

As of today, KKxGG F1 is growing like this (2-3 silks/cobs per plant). Mirai 350BC so far has only grown the one cob. As amazing looking as they are, the KKxGG F1 in VGB are most likely not going to end up with full cobs but only due to lack of sufficient pollination -- in a full patch or diligently hand pollinated, these 10-12 ft corn would have been amazing. Hopefully in the SFH, they'd will have better chance. Due to their height, I can only strategically shake the stalks to semi-direct the pollen -- by spreading them apart, judging the wind direction, and leaning tassels over.

Maybe it's the compost I put in the mini swale... maybe it's all the rain we've been getting.



I harvested Mirai350BC for our lunch today, and was dismayed to realize I picked one that had some KKxGG F1 pollen on it. If I had realized it sooner, I would have marked it and saved it to mature for seeds....



I have to be more thorough about stripping off the husk and checking. What do you do to protect the cob until the seeds are mature after stripping off the husk? Tape? Bag?

Everyone in the family is loving Mirai350BC for the sweetness, but today's accidental picking to me was even yummier with very distinct corn flavor mingling with the sweet kernels.

I am now inclined to grow double-spiral of KKxGG F1 from last year and vendor purchased Miral350BC in the Spiral Garden (my biggest bed -- 35-40 ft sq I think?) next year.

Should I put the last year's harvested seeds in the freezer? Maybe vacuum seal them? Chest freezer (no defrost) better than the kitchen side-by-side? Would that preserve their viability better?

[jal_ut]

Quote: "I would have marked it and saved it to mature for seeds...".

On corn it is best to buy new labeled seeds each year. They cross so easily and saved seeds won't produce the same results as this years crop. Also many of the corn varieties are hybrids and they won't come true next year. But then if you like to experiment..... go for it!

[Taiji]

If it turns out for me that I only get one ear per Silver Queen stalk, I think I'll just go with Ambrosia exclusively in the future. I will say it's just tasseling now, and most stalks have a couple of silky ears starting to show. That doesn't mean they'll all mature I guess. I'll see what happens. Some stalks are over 8 feet now; guess I'm just not used to corn that high! Gadzooks! as someone once said.

[rainbowgardener]

No, most of my silver queen looked like it was going to make two ears, but the lower one never developed at all.