Absolutely worth growing. You can't buy corn like you can grow. One of the thrills of Summer is waiting for the silk to brown up so you can race an ear back to the kitchen and into a pot of boiling water.

I actually dont use much space growing it, since its just for the family. A 4x8 raised bed provides two sets of 16 stalks planted about two weeks apart. Yum Yum

It's well worth growing corn. If you have space the triditional method is 27 to 29 inch rows spaced 4 inches apart. Regardless of the lenght of rows you need at least 4
rows for polination.

Last summer I posted growing corn in small places. First of all is that corn requires high nitrogen. You can plant corn in 8 inch rows and 3 or 4 inches apart. Just add a lot of water. When I lived in town, my patch was 12 by 24. I fed a family of 4 and froze enough to keep us in corn for 1 year. You can throw away the direction on the package.

Paulc

What varieties of corn did you plant that intensively?

I also think corn is a great idea. If nothing else, it looks great, kind of prehistoric as it soars majestically over the rest of the garden.

(Admittedly, I grew a varietal that reached 9' high around here in Illinois).

The variety I planted was Alpine (white). No longer available but most any corn will work just as well.

Very worth while. Check with your local ag. agent for varieties that do well in your area. My favorite is Silver Queen; can't grow it because the raccoons eat it ALL right before it is ready to pick.... Bring water to a boil, pick corn, shuck and boil until it will melt butter...mighty fine!
Corn is a heavy feeder and does pollinate better when grown in a square block rather that a long row. Go for it!

paulc

Do you suppose this is the Alpine you mean? Not enough information to know if it's white, though.

Dave's Garden has this description of a white hybrid called Alpine.

I found this list of open-pollinated corn, and am thinking I'll try the Golden Bantam and Sunshine varieties in 2009, both listed as sweet and relatively early producers.

Just another quick follow-up. Last year I planted sweet temptation (Park Seeds) a great bi-color. It matured in only 65 days. Much better than the 72 printed on the seed packet.

I grow'd some sweet corn 1st time '07 & will be planting asap in '08 This is what we done; plant a block3ftx6or8ft or so each week or 2. Didn't hill corn as it grew, plant a few pole beans around it, make some ACT & give corn a drink couple times after it growin good. I didnt even need to cook it just go out every morn pick & eat, we et corn all summer & into Nov. here. Also used corn stalks to shade the tomadoes. Left the roots in the ground & run over stalks with a mulching mower. Good Luck

I am sorry that I stated that Alpine was not available. The last time I saw it was in Burgess seed catalog. However I have switched to Argent White. I think it's better than Alpine and available here locally and in some seed catalogs. Another variety that was very good is Platium lady. I think it was dropped. I dont like the open polinated varieties because of their taste.

This last year I planted Early Sunglow to have corn by county fair time. I won first prize with it but their are a lot of varieties that taste much better.

In 1972 and 1973 I had a 20 acre produce farm. Most of my farm was sweet corn. I grew about 4 different varieties and the only one that would sell at the wholesale markets was NK 199. It was pretty good corn but the harvest was only 2 or 3 days I call it horse corn because it is large. Bigger farms could harvest it with a mechanical picker. Yield was about 700 doz per acre and worth 2.00 per doz wholesale.

Since that time there is probably 25 to 30 new varieties that are much better. Mainly because the harvest window is at least 2 weeks. Sorry to ramble on but I grow a lot of corn and love it.

This thread ties in with the degree-days topic, because I suspect that corn needs a lot to really thrive and resist insect pests and diseases. I am right near the coast, and I notice that even just a bit inland corn does a lot better. Farther south I suppose one can get the necessary degree days regardless of proximity to the ocean.

Ok, I'll be devil's advocate. I found that corn wasn't worth growing in my area. It took up lots of space. I had problems with pests big (rats & racoons)& small (some type of larvae? maggot? or worm?). I did get some of the tastiest corn I've ever had.

However, there are MANY farmers around me that grow sweet corn for farm stands. I decided it was better to just buy the sweet corn from them and not have to worry about the pests and I could dedicate the space to other veggies in the garden.

It is worth growing corn for the freshness of the taste and cost wise compared to available in the market place.For gardeners like us hand pollination produces cobs full of kernels.Corn is good as rotation for beans and other legumes since corn will use Nitrogen left behind in the soil.We freeze them if we are left with more than enough after eating fresh.

Hello, Tim in Houston: like many other questions, the answer (in my view) is "it depends". Our vegie garden is about 30 feet X 40 feet. There are lots of sweet corn growers all around us. The roadside stands a mile or two from our house sell a dozen ears of corn for $3.00 or less. We concluded that corn takes too much space in our small garden - the edible portion is so small compared to the whole plant. We also run the risk of loosing it to racoons. We decided that for us, it is not worth growing our own.

Definitely worth growing, if you have the space to do so. There is such a wide variety of tastes to choose from, and corn from the store will never be as good as fresh-picked.

BT will control the worms, if it is applied just when silks begin to brown. I spray it directly into the end of the ear.

Pnbrown, I once gardened in Palo Alto, within sight of the shoreline. The breeze off the Bay was cool, even in mid-Summer; so I know how challenging a coastal climate can be for warm-weather crops. I grew two sweet corns that did well under those conditions; "Platinum Lady" (which, as PaulC stated, appears to have been dropped) and "Honeycomb", which may still be available. Both were "se" hybrids.

You know, if you had asked me a year or so ago I would have said the same as some of the above posters. If you have limited space, sometimes the gamble doesn't work out. I got smut one year on my very small planting and freaked out, not knowing what it was. Up until that day, I had been picking ears at random to eat, so sweet and delish. Fresh sweet corn is definitely one of natures finest gifts, let me tell ya. Nothing is better than what you have grown for yourself. I'm going to try again this year, new garden, new soil. We'll see what we get! Lori

Yes, very worth it growing corn. I try to put in 4 or 5 plots each year for a long harvest of fresh ears and for freezing.
Probably the Big 4 Errors that some folks make with their first planting are :
1) Not planting in Blocks for best pollination.
2) Rows and/or seed planted to closely together.
3) Planting in a too shady of an area (needs 8+ hours full sun)
4) Insufficient Nitrogen for feeding plants.

My favorite variety = Ambrosia, se, bicolor

I should have listed #5 :

5) Not knowing when to harvest ears at their "peak" of perfection.

I read so many stories of people picking either immature ears or picking over matured tough & starchy ears. Ambrosia has a long picking period of about 10 days when it's "good" to eat, but like all corns there's a shorter critical period of a 3-day window where the ears melt in your mouth with an explosion of flavor, sweetness, and tenderness that earns the name Ambrosia.

I would definitely grow corn if you have the space. I grow INCREDIBLE which is a sweeter yellow corn. I have lots of coons and deer around. Blanch it, cut it off the cob and when you eat it months later it still tastes better than what you can buy.

I have lots of coons and deer around. I'm not sure it was all necessary but here is what I did to protect the corn and nothing messed with it.

I used a dozen fresh corn cobs and soaked them in vinegar and spread them around the corn patch. I have read that this makes the coons think that all of the corn tastes like vinegar which they don't like.

I bought cheap vinegar and mixed blended hot peppers with it. I used a paintbrush and put that on the silk end of each cob before it became big enough to eat and repeated this every couple of days. I think the vinegar probably reduced the smell of the corn which is what attracts the coons imho

there's a really specific reason that home-grown sweet corn can be so much better than any store-bought: once cut from the stalk, the sugar levels in the kernels HALVES in just ONE HOUR! The same thing happens with green peas.

So if you can just cut some corn in your garden and almost immediately process/cook it, you'll have a much sweeter corn than you would find even at those roadside stores that grow their own corn.

Indeed this is the reason for all the research into the various "sugar" genes that corn has. The improved types lose their sugar more slowly. However none of them compare to picked-5-minutes-ago.

Just remember that corn needs a lot of nitrogen, and read up on those sugar-genes stuff - se+, and sh and whatever - and pick the type you want to grow. And wildlife is often a big problem. It seems all animals throught the U.S. have learned very well that corn is a very nice food source.

Corn is low on my priority list, after tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, beans, cucumbers, winter squash, melons, eggplant, potatoes, and herbs. When good corn can consistently be had 5 for a dollar, there's no way to justify it in economic terms. Note that commercial sweet corn is considered low risk for pesticides. That said, I do use it as a fill crop for any unused bed space. You MUST get two good ears per stalk, or you're really wasting your time. The book "Cubed Foot Gardening" has the best tip I've seen- plant your seeds in a bottomless burried 32oz yogurt cup, when plant is about one foot tall sprinkle any good solid vegetable fertilizer in bottom of cup, remove cup, and fill around stalk with soil. This has worked VERY well for me. You can use plastic over the cup to start corn up to a month early.

I agree with peanuttree concerning peas. I grew my first snap peas this year and was amazed at the difference in taste. I didn't think about it last year but peas (spinach, radishes and lots more) can be grown in between the melon rows if planted early. By the time the melons are growing good the peas are done.

I think it is more a question of space, if you have the space and a good tiller corn really isn't that much work. After enjoying some corn last year I just expanded the garden to plant more. If everything is raised beds that is a lot more work and more expensive.

I have also read that planting three seeds of pole beans with each corn seed will help with raccoons. Evidently there are little thorns on the vines which bother the coon's hands.