Based upon the 65-70 days, this is a early variety.

Depends how much work/fertilizing/watering you wish to do with the corn.

You could plant the corn 8 inches apart with 12 inches between the rows if you provide additional fertilizer and make sure to water very well.

You definitely need at least a block of 16 - preferably four rows of four. Even better would be four rows of eight or sixteen.

The reasoning for this is the cross-pollination that corn requires. Personally I manually pollinate all my corn since I only grow about 100 total. It does take some time to do, but it ensures better pollination.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

Hmmmmmmmmmm

Well I only wanted to plant MABEy 10 plants. I wont need too much fertilizer, seeing as im interplanting beans and corn, and sunflowers.

So mabey hand pollinating them is the best way, seeing as im not trying to grow alot of plants. The one thing i know im not short on is wind. My city is right beside lake supirior, so were susceptible to some decent winds.

Im short on space. The one garden bed is 15 x 5. The other one is 12 x 12. Its young garden. There is an increasing amount of perennials, seeing as im trying to stay away from annuals ( of course in therms of food, its not very easy to grow good crops that are all perennial).

Being wind pollinated, corn is best grown in large blocks. Even the 4 rows of 4 is iffy.

Unfortunately for the space-challenged, nature is what nature is and plants require what plants require.

Even using the practice of running my hands through the tassels to stir up pollen to aid the wind I've only had moderate success with blocks of corn ~10 feet square.

Even serious farmers growing corn by the acre have problems with poor pollination of the first several rows on the upwind side of the field.

Its not impossible to grow small quantities of corn, but it will take a good deal of extra work to get decent, corn-on-the-cob ears.

I've grown 4' x 7' plots of corn several time....3 rows of 9 plants each...and had good pollination with a little extra effort. When the corn tassels began producing pollen, I broke off a few pieces every other day for a week or so and rubbed it on the silks of each ear. Really didn't take very long for so few plants. You could easily deal with 10 plants.

Corn does like enough nitrogen. Don't count on interplanted beans to supply enough for the corn.

Thanks for the replies everyone...

It seems like either way Id have to hand pollinate the corn. Not a problem, seeing as i dont have alot of plants. Ill jsut have to take a look as to methods of doing so.

Ive also read that too much nitrogen can cause lack of ears, and stunted growth as well? I have a few perennial legumes there ( wisteria for one), and even a plant thats only 3 feet tall, can harness enough notrogen fixing bacteria, to supply a 5 foot radius around the plant.

Im going to use the 3 sisters technique ( well 4, including the sunflowers). Im adapting it a bit. IT w)ont be as large, and im using vining cucumbers instead of squash ( I dont eat squash).

I tried the three sisters method two years ago. I wasn't impressed with the results. It is just too crowded for all three plants to get enough light and nutrients.

Also, the variety of corn you selected is on the small side, the beans will most likely overwhelm the corn plants. Native Americans did not use sweet corn, they had tall, sturdy varieties that they left in the field to dry until fall.

Further research also showed that Native Americans did not grow the three sisters all in one mound. The beans and squash were likely planted in separate mounds around the perimeter of the corn mounds.

btw, the beans will not provide nitrogen for THIS year's corn, you definately need to provide extra. I don't know what you read, but corn is a very heavy feeder.

I think you will get some corn from your 10 plants, but keep in mind that you will not get ears on all 10 plants if they are too close together. My experience is to plant in a grid 12" apart to have each plant produce an ear. And you will have to hand pollinate, the stiff wind will just blow the pollen away. Do it in the morning before the winds kick up too much.

Good luck and let us know how it turned out.

Thanks for the reply

Ive found quite a variation is size of mound, anywhere from 4 feet, to 10 feet accross. As you say, the corn wont produce well, if its crowded. From what ive seen, a 4 foot mound should end up having 3- 5 stalks of corn, 4 - 6 beans, and one squash plant. Also, the natives apperantly used to bury dead fish int he mounds as well ( of course i could just use fish emultion).

In terms of the nitrogen fixing plants. Ive read both. Most of the material ive read agrees with what you say. And of course i wouldnt expect it to work right away. But lots of what ive read suggests that the nitrogen fixers still supply an ammount nitrogen to the shallow soil ( obviously not near as much as the plants do at leaf fall).

Perennial nitrogen fixers do this better then annuals. But generaly speaking, little bits of root end up dying all the time. This is responsible for a lesser, but still a small accumulation of nitrogen. I do agree, the first year at least ill have to add some fish emulsion or blood meal ( I have bamboo, and bananas here as well, who LOVE nitrogen so i should get some anyways :D )

It might help, to mention that im trying to stick with various forms of permaculture and sustainable gardening. So im not strickly growing food. Theyll be mixed beds. And example, would be clematis, soem annual vines, canna, corn, various herbs, lily, iris, wisteria, strawberries, and hopefully, the addition of either a hazlenut shrub, or apricot tree. Not to mention annuals such as carrots, radish peppers and tomatoes.

If you are interplanting vegetables and ornamentals, try this. Plant the corn in "clumps", about 6 seeds in one spot, don't worry about spacing, the corn plants will work it out. Then another clump and another, as many as you have room for. Corn is very ornamental planted like this, like a giant grass, which it is. In my experience, this provides a high enough tassel to silk ratio to give reasonably good pollination. If nothing else it's decorative!

Steve

Skeip - That was my original intention. Group a bunch in a 5 foot square area, and do mabey 2 or 3 of these, spaced out. I might get away with 2 of these in each bed.

Either way, it seems like im either going to have to annex my neighbors yard, or hand pollinate. Id like to make sure i get at least one good meal out of it.

Thanks for the help so far everyone

I'm glad you posted this. I just dug out my "corn field" last weekend. It's going to be about 6 x 3. I was thinking 3 rows across, and however many I can down. Would that be good? I'm going to be adding soil so I was thinking of compost and top soil. Would that be good? Should I add something like peat?

Sorry to hijack but didn't want to do another corn post.

jwahlton -

Either way, you will need to manually pollinate. I've written up on my website how I manually pollinate corn and it works pretty well.

After the tassels begin to shed pollen, I'll take an ice cream bucket up next to the tassel and try to shake as much pollen as I can. I only take what I can use. Then I cut the silk on the corn all to be the same length and then use a small paint brush to brush the pollen on. Has worked very well in my 4 x 13 beds where I only had three rows of 13 last year. This year I plan to try planting them closer in that same area and make four rows.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

No thats ok, bsntech answered both our questions I think.

Since they are going to be in fairly close proximity, couldnt I just shake all the stalks and pollinate them that way?

Thanks for the link