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
