Corn is one of the easiest to grow. It is a space hog, some mant backyard gardeners do not bother with it. We planted single stalks at 42 inch intervals. In the old days , simply poughed up a filed smoothed it down with a harrow, fertilized with 3-12 -6 at 200 lbs per acre, cultivated 2-3 times and harvested. Todays cultivars can be forced down to about 12 inch spacing with adequate fertilizer and water. You do need a high nitrogen fertilizer in this scenario. Chicken manure or one of the manufactured nitrates. 16 plants in a square block is about the minimum recommended. Ear worms are the major peasts, especially for sweet corn. They can be controlled with agricultural oils or pesticides. As a beginner choose a variety know to be adapted to your area.
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I plant a variety called Early Golden Bantam, just because its the only variety I've found that is early enough to miss the corn borers which are dreaded in my area. You don't know you have them until you pick your sweet corn and shuck it and you have this disgusting grainy brown mass full of green and brown worms instead of an ear or corn. I have chickens and I put their composted manure on the plot every winter and thats the only fertilizer I've used. You know the pattern on dice when you roll a five? Well thats how I plant my corn. I plant a small 4 X 5 foot space of seeds in that five pattern about 6 inches apart in every direction all across the space. Most of the time just enough sprout so I dont have to thin but once in awhile I have to thin to about 12" or so between plants. When you are planting the seed make sure it doesn't get too wet or it will rot. Also, be very careful because crows LOVE corn seeds and will pull up the little plants to find the seeds at the bottom when they are very young (this happened my first year growing corn and they left no survivors). Cultivation is important too, corn doesn't do well with weeds. Shallow cultivation though, I believe corn has shallow roots so you don't want to go too deep. Good luck
:)
Holly

Wanted to add my two cents worth on protecting corn from the birds. I go to a fabric store and buy some nylon net to cover the newly planted area. You can get this nylon net in widths up to 72" and it isn't very expensive. In fact, I watch for sales on it and sometimes get it for .50 a yard. You can fasten it down along the four sides with whatever you have on hand, but not too tight because you want to leave it lax enough for the corn to grow to a heigth the birds won't bother with. The nylon net can be washed and stored away for next year as well. I get it in green and it blends right in. This has always worked for me, but if you're going to do a lot of land, naturally, this wouldn't be the solution for you.

I'll just add a little here..corn is a grass and it loves nitrogen and responds to it. It loves summer weather and lots and lots of water. And don't forget, it takes up a lot of space for the amount of yield you will get. It's really fun to grow and delicious to eat,as mentioned above plant it in blocks for polination's sake, fight with the earworms in your favorite way, and enjoy it. Just one other thing that might be helpful: Plant it between ridges in the soil, and then pull the soil into it as the plant grows. Oh and one other thing..when you go out to pick your corn, have the water on the stove heating. As soon as you pick it, it starts to become starchy, which I like(I love field corn)but most people prefer sweet corn. Have a world of fun with it..steve

quincunx.

That is the name for planting on a dot pattern like a five on dice. I know this because I wrote an article a few years ago on planting walnut trees in patterns of which the quincunx was one of the variations.

DarJones

Fusion power: I love that bit of info. I'll have to remember it and share it when showing friends around the garden. It is always interesting to see what direction some GW topics take.

Hi,

We planted corn for the first time last year and made some huge mistakes. Planted it all at the same time (4 rows 30 feet long). Almost all came up and ripened at the same time. Not that it mattered. It was supposedly sweet corn, but had no taste. Most of it remained unpicked because of that.

Question for those more experienced: Was it the seed (cheap, walmart) or not fertilizing, maybe both.

As for the birds and the seeds, I bought three or four pinwheels and placed them at either end of the rows. Seemed to work since we lost no seed to speak of.

Any help would be appreciated.

Caryl

Caryl,

Grow 3 varieties of corn with different maturities to extend your season without having to plant at different times. You could plant an early, a midseason, and a late season variety to get the best spread of maturity. Be sure to plant varieties that are all the same type if you do this. For example, plant only sugar enhanced corn like Silver King which is a long season variety.

There are a LOT of varieties of corn on the market that are not very flavorful. Some that I grow and like are:

Merit - a hybrid sweet yellow standard sugary corn. This one is best used for putting corn on the cob in the freezer as well as for fresh eating. Be sure to grow only SU types of corn if you want to try one of these old standard varieties.

Silver King - A long season sugar enhanced white sweet corn with decent flavor.

Breeders choice - A sugar enhanced variety sold by Burpees but produced by http://www.mesamaize.com/ as a small kernel full eared corn with a unique flavor.

Honey and Pearls - this one is an SH2 variety that is way too sweet for my taste, but some of my friends love it.

The key with the above varieties of corn is to only grow one genetic type such as sugar enhanced. As an example, you could grow the long season Silver King and the medium season Breeder's Choice to extend your season for fresh corn. Pick another SE+ variety that is very early maturity and you would have corn ripening over about 30 days of summer.

DarJones

Concur. Variety accounts for most of the difference in taste. Fortunately different folks like different tastes. I like Se s , and find the synergistics acceptable. Don't care much for the taste and texture of the supersweets (SH2)
I also plant 3-4 varieties at once for extended harvest. Usually Silver Knight, Silver Princess, Silver King, Silver Queen. I usually plant a biclor seperately as a table corn. Sugar Dots is my favorite but there are a lot of good ones in the Se class.
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I fully agree with Sugar Dots.

Unfortunately, no one sells Sugar Dots anymore unless you purchase it through a catalog or online - none of the local stores have them.

Sugar Dots was what I started with when growing corn - and then I tried Peaches & Cream this past year since farmers markets and roadside sellers sell this variety. I wasn't too pleased with Peaches & Cream myself - and Sugar Dots still took the cake.

This year I am going to plant some more Sugar Dots (I bought a bulk amount of it last year) and going to try Silver Queen.

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

I ordered a good deal of Golden Bantam this year and wondered if anyone had any experience with this variety? My family likes a sweeter cob, but not the super sweets. How will this fair?

Thanks,
Michael

Golden Bantam is arguably the best of the Open pollinated yellow sweet corns. It can hold its own with hybrid Su types for eating quality. It is a midseason corn with a small ear on a small plant. Ripens with Merit which has a much larger ear, flavor is comparable.

This article will help you filter out the best fertilizer for your soil!
Although it does not refer to the specific fertilizer but it tells the basic factor keeping which in mind you should select the fertilizer for corn. It is different for different type of soil

have a look:
http://growingcorn.blogspot.com/2009/02/fertilizing-corn.html

Thanks so much for your help. I had no idea there were so many varieties and types of corn (the SE, for example). I'll have to try some of the ones suggested.

Caryl

Ear worms can be very destructive. One way of combatting ear worms is to inject about 1 cc of vegetable oil into the husk at the end of the ear soon after silk appears. I plan to do this with my next corn crop. I found this item, called a "flavor injector" in the housewares department of a budget store. It costs less than two dollars and I think it will work well for the purpose.

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Jim

Caryl,
The others give good advice to plant more than one compatible variety to avoid one big plot having a poor harvest for some reason. As for why your particular planting had bad results, there could be several reasons: waited too long before harvesting, too dry, too close to another planting with an incompatible sweetness gene (i.e, you planted a supersweet variety close to someone else's planting of an SU or SE type).

To give you an idea of the enormous number of varieties, see the attached link.

I've always had good results with Early Sunglow as my first early variety, then follow it up in a few weeks with a mid-season variety.

Here is a link that might be useful: List of sweetcorn varieties

Wow. What a great help all you corn growers are. I'll have to save this link so I can refer to it.

And while I like corn, my husband loves it so by suggesting we grow corn I was finally able to get him to dig out a much larger veggie plot in the backyard and use my old smaller plot for early things like lettuce, broccoli and peas.

If we can get some good corn this year maybe he'll stay engaged in the process. (I can dream, right?)

Thanks again all.

Caryl

I have a traditionally small corn patch- but as
stated, corn loves nitrogen is generally regarded as a heavy feeder. About this time of year I start stopping by all the starbucks I see for used coffee grounds (UGC) they are a great source of nitrogen. And free
to boot. Here in the Seattle area, I got about 50 lbs of UGC just on Tuesday while running errands!