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Post by littleminnie on May 17, 2010 19:15:49 GMT -5
Has anyone ever planted corn in a more scattered fashion than rows? I have 4 four foot sections 215 feet total length to plant. I don't have a seeder just a hoe and elbow grease so to speak. Last time I planted corn it almost killed me.  |
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Post by ottawagardener on May 17, 2010 20:11:20 GMT -5
I've heard of people planting it in blocks rather than rows even in spirals. Do you mean literally 'scattering' to cut down on the planting?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 17, 2010 22:52:11 GMT -5
Has anyone ever planted corn in a more scattered fashion than rows? I have 4 four foot sections 215 feet total length to plant. I don't have a seeder just a hoe and elbow grease so to speak. Last time I planted corn it almost killed me. When I was a child we planted corn in hills with a shovel.... Pick up about an inch of soil with the shovel. Throw about six kernels in the hole. Drop the soil back onto the seed. Move forward three feet and repeat. It works well with two people. One to lift the dirt and the other to throw the seeds. I'm not coordinated enough to do it gracefully by myself. I prefer using a hoe in freshly tilled soil, but then I also have rock-free soil that it easy to hoe. (Today I planted 500 feet of row with a hoe. The sun about killed me, but the hoeing was fine.) I want to invent my ideal seeder... A hollow tube that I poke into the ground, and drop a seed, and the seed falls down into the soil at the proper depth, and the tube doesn't get filled with dirt... Regards, Joseph |
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 18, 2010 6:05:05 GMT -5
I want to invent my ideal seeder... A hollow tube that I poke into the ground, and drop a seed, and the seed falls down into the soil at the proper depth, and the tube doesn't get filled with dirt... Regards, Joseph A short length of 3/4" pvc pipe with the end "carved" to resemble a tongue or sort of spoon. The "spoon" makes the hole, drop the seed, shove the soil over with your foot or the spoon. Not horribly efficient but your back won't ache at the end of the deal...  |
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Post by darwinslair on May 18, 2010 7:42:08 GMT -5
I actually had to do most of my planting by hand this year due to clayish soils being wet when I had to plant, and that gummed up my seeder pretty quickly.
One way that I do with the stronger stalked corns is the 3 sisters method. The soil is already pretty well worked, so not a lot of extra effort at planting time, just a lot of stooping, so hope you have been doing your deep knee bends. In an area about 8" across, plant (around that perimeter) 5 or 6 seeds. Move one good step down the "row" and repeat. Once the corn is up and about 6" tall, go back through with a hoe and pull dirt from between the hills up over the base of the corn and plant a climbing bean type that will not overwhelm the corn inside the circle of corn plants, and about every third hill of corn do a hill of squash. Maybe kinda late to be putting squash in at that point this year, but a shorter season corn and beans should still be fine, and if you can get 100 days before frost there should be some good squashes you can do.
Tom
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 18, 2010 15:55:52 GMT -5
Has anyone ever planted corn in a more scattered fashion than rows? I have 4 four foot sections 215 feet total length to plant. I don't have a seeder just a hoe and elbow grease so to speak. Last time I planted corn it almost killed me. The other way that I commonly plant seeds is to crawl along the ground and press one seed into the soil ever so often. In soft soil that works slick as anything, and it saves all the thinning associated with using a seeder. Regards, Joseph |
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Post by blueadzuki on May 18, 2010 16:19:06 GMT -5
I try to plant my corn in rows (or at least rows of hills), but usually it ends up pretty random since I am very bad at eyeballing straight lines) This year for the first time I actually made a point to, whne thinning time came up to, not merely thin out the overfilled hills but to move the seedling around (very very carfully so they actually were in as close to a grid as possible.
Basically you can probably get away with plating your corn however you want. The main advantage of planting in nice straight rows or in another fixed pattern is that it gives you clear areas where you know you didn't plant anything, and you can thefore safely walk on. Planting in something along the lines of a square to thick rectange has another advantage; as corn is wind pollinated keeping the patches as square as possible (or at least with some depth to them) maximizes the pollination regardless of which way the wind is blowing (this is probably why so may of my previos season had such crappy results, my corn as it came in tended to be so patchy that there were usually virtually no two stalks that were in the same wind path so all the pollen was just blowing away into empty air.
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Post by silverseeds on May 18, 2010 18:56:34 GMT -5
Corn doesnt know if its in a row or not, as long as each plant has enough space, its fine. but you would likely get more from the area, planting in a more controlled way.
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Post by littleminnie on May 18, 2010 20:21:01 GMT -5
Well I did my first wave of corn today. I did do traditional rows for now. But maybe the next batch will be something different. I four 4.5 foot sections to grow in and cucurbits will be on the outside between the four sections. I did the first row of corn seed 6" into the bed and another row 12" past that. Then there is not quite 2' space and then two more rows 1 foot apart. Each seed is 1 foot apart.
edge of plastic----6 inches---1 row corn---1 foot-----1 more row corn------walking space (will have mulch there)----1 row corn------1 foot-----1 more row corn----6 inches----edge of plastic
So how I did the seed- very precise actually. I dropped one seed every foot (measured to start with and then eyeballed) and then came back and pushed it in with the other end of the shovel. I plan on adding a bit of compost to basically hill up the corn a little once it is up-especially because I have sandy soil.
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