One day in early July a few years ago my wife and I were visiting Lancaster Co PA, and bought some fresh sweet corn that the Amish were selling from their wagon. It was very good, but how in the heck did they get corn that early, we wondered? Well, a few years later, we were having the standard warm spell in early April and my wife told me to get out there and plant the corn. I told her that corn required a ground temp of 50F and it would rot if planted early. You can read this everywhere. She got out our soil thermometer and showed me the temp was 50F. I told her it was just for the day and would not last through the time required for germination, especially in Mar/April. I decided to show her and planted a block of early corn. To make a long story short, it worked and we have been doing this for the last 4 or 5 years and now WE are getting corn around July 1. There are tense moments every year but we get through them all. My corn plot is only 30 x 40, and I only plant a 10 x 15 plot early, but it is amazing that we have been able to do this year after year. After planting the seed, I water and cover it with a big sheet of plastic. This keeps the heat in during the night and speeds the germination, which can take a week or more. If the ground gets dry under there, I lift and water and put it back. I remove the plastic when the corn starts pushing it up, and replace it with a big sheet of Reemay. That mainly keeps the birds away but also helps to keep the corn warm at night. We always suffer through several nights in the 30s, and I am always worried about the small plants, but they seem quite hardy once they germinate. I always use an early variety (Polka from Jung, and now Paydirt, which replaced it) that can take cold soil. If temps below 32 are predicted, I put the plastic back on to help the little plants survive, and this was necessary this year (2013).

The germination takes a long time, and we usually get a number of gaps in the row, and the plants take longer to bear with that early planting. The early varieties don't get very tall - 4 - 5 feet is usual - and don't look that impressive. But the nice thing is, with hoeing, good fertilizer, and watering when necessary, we get some really great-tasting corn several weeks to a month before we used to. My garden log showed that we planted Polka and Paydirt corn on March 21, 2012 and picked it on July 1, 2012. That is over 90 days, for 70 day corn, but it grows pretty slow when it is cold here in Schuylkill Co PA, just West of Allentown. We are at 1000 feet above sea level, and the temps here are usually about 3-5 degrees below those recorded in Allentown.

Maybe some of you cheat the season, too, and if so, I would love to hear about your experiences.

Frank