First Time Growing Sweet Corn. Need Help for 2021.

[lindaj]

I grew Astronomy Domine Sweet Corn last year (2020) and will definitely grow it again. I had no problem with it staying upright and I loved the taste. I have a question, 2020 was my first time growing sweet corn. The ears on this corn were small, like 6 inches. Does anyone know if this is typical for the particular corn? I only got one ear per plant, but not all plants produced an ear. Maybe 50%. I had 100% germination. I’ve read where some got 5 to 6 ears per stalk. Any ideas on why mine only produced 1 ear per stalk? Maybe I didn’t water enough or fertilize enough? What kind of fertilizer should I use?

[DarJones]

How far apart the plants are spaced determines how many ears a stalk will make. I'm guessing your spacing was really close, maybe 6 inches from one stalk to the next.

To grow good sweet corn, plant 3 seed per hill with hills 15 inches apart in the row and rows at least 3 feet apart. When about a foot tall, thin to 2 plants per hill.

Open pollinated sweet corn will never produce as well as hybrid sweet corn. If you want to do a good comparison, grow some Silver King sweet corn and see how much difference there is compared to open pollinated.

Edit: forgot to mention, corn is a very heavy feeder, particularly for nitrogen. Fertilize heavily to get a good crop.

[diane]

Or to get any crop.

Many years ago my father planted a corn patch for me and fertilized it. It grew well.

The next year, I sowed seeds in the same patch and did not fertilize. I had miniature corn plants, less than a foot high, and no cobs.

[bon]

Corn is a heavy feeder.

My first year of sweet corn, I double dug the ground in the fall. Of course, it was a small plot. I dug in rabbit manure and kitchen compost as I did this. I believe I strategically placed some very very well seasoned twigs (for moisture retention). I covered it all with a hay mulch. Planted about ten inches apart. I got 3 to 5 ears of corn per stalk. The variety was the common heirloom Golden Bantam (improved).

Corn grows well here. I haven't done that since, because I have access to local hybrid sweet corn and just buy it every winter. Since sweet corn is not too stable, I haven't included it into my long term goals.

I think the key was the rabbit manure, but because I did it the fall prior to the growing season.

[flowerbug]

the problems here with growing corn are many but the main two are that we have a lot of raccoons around and they love corn if they can get to it. we would need very good fences and electric wires to protect the plants. it's a bit more than i want to do for a crop we don't eat that often. the other main issue is the amount of corn grown in this area, every season at least one field around us is planted in corn, some seasons even more than one field may be planted in corn. so it has never been a priority for me to grow it. as much as i would love to grow some corn meal type plants at some point i'm not sure i will ever get to that stage.

from what i know, it does need heavy feeding and enough water, we don't have a problem with supplying water, but i only do things organically and my main fertilizers are from worm compost of kitchen scraps so that is what i have to work with. first planting into that is usually tomatoes or onions and then i rotate plant others through that space for a few years before i have to amend it again. with corn i'd have to probably aim for smaller varieties that don't drain the soil as heavily as some others might. to me i would rather be in balance with what the garden soil here can provide than go for huge amounts of production. i am the same way with beans and peas. if i can get enough return then they are ok as long as i can get some seeds and also the crop i am after.

whups, sorry, i do ramble.

[bon]

Flowerbug,

Some of the native varieties of dent corn are weedy and aggressive. Just FYI. If you have the space, you can plant excessively and still gain a harvest or two until such time the raccoon population taht you support becomes too large and you need to thin the herd. LOL HOWEVER, if you have neighbors that persistently grow sweet corn, you can pretty much count on the coons rejecting your less sweet dent corn.

I won't bother with sweet corn because of the pollination issues to which you refer.

I read up on corn [ollination and to sustain viable seed for long term, it is recommended to plant a minimum of 200 plants and to swap seeds of the exact same variety with which another farmer is growing. Yeah, I don't think so.

The mass plantings and exchange of seed is also recommended for very long term sustainability on other vegetables, but most are much more manageable on a smaller scale, require less space and the common heirlooms are widely available.

Yeah, All that for corn and to fight off coons? No way.

Buy frozen corn from the store and dehydrate! ha

[xdrix]

Our problem is the drought and the hot.Some years the corn is almost ready and dry at the end of august.

The small varieties are green more long time.

[atilgan]

I have grown Astronomi Domine last year. It has bushy habit. Those obtaining 5 or 6 ears are probably not getting that from a single stalk.

[diane]

From lindaj:

Linda is the person who started this topic, but she was unsure how to respond again, so sent me a personal message which I have copied here. Someone with more success growing corn will be more helpful to her.

===============================================

You mentioned corn is a heavy feeder. What do you recommend as a fertilizer as the fertilizer I used was evidently not enough. Not a specific name, but more so the numbers. The fertilizer I used had an NPK of 4-8-6. And yes, I did have them about 6 inches apart. I’d seen on YouTube you could grow corn in a 4x4 bed usin the block method. WRONG! So would I use a fertilizer high in nitrogen until the ears of corn starts to grow and then switch to a fertilizer with a lower nitrogen and higher P&K?

Is it normal for corn plant to grow the pollen on top before any ears form below? 😊Like I said, I’m new to growing corn. When I saw that I thought, there are no ears of corn with silk to pollinate. Then about a week or so later I started seeing ears form, and then silk. By then it looked like the pollen was gone or almost gone.

Like I said, they never got big, but when I pulled one off that had brown silk it had every kernel filled. Then I pushed my thumb nail in to see if it was ready or if I picked it to soon and I had a milky not clear liquid. Then I didn’t know what to do.

So should the kernel’s liquid be milky or clear?

[lindaj]

Thank you everyone for replying. All your responses were very helpful. I do believe in gardening organically and have been using my compost as a top dressing and as an amendment. I also like to use fish emulsion and comprehensive tea as well as chopping and dropping the comphrey leaves.

At the moment I don’t have a raccoon problem. The reason I wanted to try growing corn was because it looks easy. The farmers around us just plant it and then late October harvest it. The farmers around here price their corn the same as the grocery store which is expensive. Plus I don’t know if their corn is genetically modified (I see all these signs along the road in the corn with numbers on them). Or the corn that is sold in the store. I figure I I buy heirloom I am good and I get way more than I can afford to buy.

So I appreciate learning more about growing corn and knowing when it is ready to pick. When you pierce the kernel is the fluid supposed to be clear or milky?

[xdrix]

If the fluide is milky, the corn is used for the human consumption (BBQ)for example.If the fluide is clear, thé corn is used for the animal consumption or the flour,polenta.

[DarJones]

Lindaj, you are welcome to ask any and all questions and please don't be embarrassed to do so. We all had to start somewhere. To stay organic with corn, you will have to have a very high nitrate soil amendment. You can use blood meal though in my experience, it causes more problems with cats digging in the ground than I care to deal with. It takes 1/2 cup of blood meal per hill applied twice during the season. I use chicken manure which builds up in my chicken coop over winter. Each hill of corn gets about a pint of the dry manure. It is applied as a side dressing to plants at the 6 inch tall mark. Dig a shallow trench about 4 inches away from the plants and pour in the manure, then cover it with soil.

The critical growth phase of corn is between one foot tall and 4 feet tall. The plants MUST have abundant nitrogen at that stage of growth. When the tassels appear, the plants need abundant water. If they go through a drought while tasseling, very few and very small ears will be produced.

To grow in raised 4 ft beds, plant hills of seed at a rate of 3 seeds in each square foot of the bed. The seed should be planted in a single hole about 3/4 inch deep. When the plants are a foot tall, thin to 2 plants per square foot. The maximum number of plants a raised bed can normally support is 2 per square foot.

As the plants grow, add more soil around the plants so that the stems are very well supported. This will prevent the plants being blown over by strong wind.

Please note that nitrogen sources cannot be added to the soil before planting. It will leach out of the soil before corn can use it. This is why side dressing with a nitrogen source is necessary. One caution, blood meal releases relatively slowly so has to be applied at the 6 inch tall stage to be available for rapid growth a week or two later. Put in a small amount of blood meal before planting to get the seedlings off to a good start, then put a larger amount as side dressing. It will take about 5 pounds of blood meal to grow corn in one 4 X 4 raised bed.

[lindaj]

Thank you, everyone, for helping me understand how to grow corn.

Now I have new questions related to fertilizing and watering the corn.

I saw a response that said I could use blood meal. What about using urea? That has a higher nitrogen count of 45? I remember someone saying the blood meal might attract raccoon?

1) How often do I apply either the blood meal or urea?
2) When do I stop applying it? When you see the pollen forming or when you see the ears forming?
3) What fertilizer do I use to help your ears grow after I stop using the nitrogen fertilizer?

Last year all I did was top dress from my compost pile and used either the Alaskan or Neptune’s Harvest liquid fertilizer. Obviously it wasn’t enough.

Or maybe it would have been but I was also trying to make sure the ground didn’t dry out so I was either hauling the hose out and watering until I thought the space was thoroughly watered when the top of the soil looked dry or I carried water in my 2 gallon cans because I had either Neptune’s Harvest or Alaskan fertilizer in it.

4). Maybe I washed away or leached away the fertilizer by over watering?

[lindaj]

Thank you, everyone, for helping me understand how to grow corn.

Now I have new questions related to fertilizing and watering the corn.

I saw a response that said I could use blood meal. What about using urea? That has a higher nitrogen count of 45? I remember someone saying the blood meal might attract raccoon?

1) How often do I apply either the blood meal or urea?
2) When do I stop applying it? When you see the pollen forming or when you see the ears forming?
3) What fertilizer do I use to help your ears grow after I stop using the nitrogen fertilizer?

Last year all I did was top dress from my compost pile and used either the Alaskan or Neptune’s Harvest liquid fertilizer. Obviously it wasn’t enough.

Or maybe it would have been but I was also trying to make sure the ground didn’t dry out so I was either hauling the hose out and watering until I thought the space was thoroughly watered when the top of the soil looked dry or I carried water in my 2 gallon cans because I had either Neptune’s Harvest or Alaskan fertilizer in it.

4). Maybe I washed away or leached away the fertilizer by over watering?

[xdrix]

I use a fertiliser at slow action in granule.The granule fertiliser is best assimilated than a liquid fertiliser.


I have noted that the corn stopped his grow when he miss of water and he has too hot before the fructification but she take again when he has water.