Wow, those look great! How close together are they planted? I have a 4' x 8' bed and am wondering how many plants I can grow in there?

That is some nice and healthy looking corn! What variety did you plant it?

Silvia

Silvia, I would love to meet you some time and see your garden. I just never get over your way. I planted the silver queen seedlings from the Depot back in march.

capitalistbaby- they are spaced 8 per row, dunno how that breaks down cause I eyeballed it when I planted them. Now they are about 4 in apart (just went and measured).

It is such a weird looking plant to have in your yard but I love looking at it! Cars driving by are taking a double take when they see it, and they stop and talk which is what I like.

Hi Organic -

Brevard County in Florida eh? Are you on Merritt Island (since you are the island farmer).

I've got a friend that leaves near Cocoa - Port Saint John actually.

We planted Sugar Dots and Silver Queen corn the first weekend in May. They have been slowly peeking their heads up - about 25 each has come up out of the 43 we planted so far.

I'm hoping we'll get two ears per stalk as well - looks like some of yours have two ears.

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

Hi Organic

Maybe one day we will meet...in the meantime here are some pictures for you from the corn last season

{{gwi:61360}}

{{gwi:23140}}

{{gwi:61361}}

An this season I only planted 2 ornamental and 1 Blue Baby Jade, I want it to see how tall it is. Is about 3 feet and I got 2 ears that are 6 inches.

{{gwi:61362}}

{{gwi:61363}}

Silvia

bsntech- yup that is the island, I travel all over the county as a locksmith and was in PSJ this morning. I been peeking in on you blog too from time to time, started with the watering system you have I think. I am going to definately do some sort of rain barrel thing this summer when the rains start to come, every day at 3 pm.

whgille- looks like some companion planting going on there. I think corn is one of the coolest looking plants to grow! Definately needs the sun! If you do come to the beach this summer you can stop by, I am gone most of the time but all my plants are in my front driveway, soon to be brevards newest tourist attraction! lol!

Thanks so much for measuring! That is stunning, 4 inches apart! I wonder if I could get away with that in my raised bed?

I go to pick mangoes there, they are the best! I hope that they were not affected by the freeze.

I will be on the lookout for your great looking plants,:)

Silvia

Great looking corn - I'm jealous! I won't have corn for another 2.5 months :( I haven't even planted a seed yet!

Capitalistbaby - I plant corn with great success in my raised bed at 2 per square foot in a diagonal pattern. Each stalk ends up about 8-10 inches away from the next one.

Hope that helps.

The biggest concern about having them so close is will they produce? I guess it depends on having enough nutrients for them. Will see if any of this makes its way to the table, will let you know.

Organic and whgille -

What variety of corn do you plant that gets you the two ears per stalk? What is the percentage of stalks that you plant (out of that variety) that have two (or more) ears?

How far apart do you typically plant them apart from each other (and the rows if done this way). Lastly - what kind of fertilizier/soil do you use and do you add fertilizer a on regular basis?

Anxious to see if maybe I can plant corn closer together next year and still get two ears of corn with a good degree of success.

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

bsntech- I planted silver queen corn according to earthbox package instructions and used their dolomite and time release fert. You should be able to get 3 ears per stalk. I use a mix of beach sand from my yard, miracle grow dirt two kinds, perlite, vermiculite, peat, cow manure! I eyeballed everything till it looks like potting soil and is crumbly nice. I used some time release general purpose fert in the dirt and I use a week tea of Miracle grow in my water that I use daily, I think its 1/5th strength. I wanted to make sure I have all my bases covered. So far its working great for me now that I have my moisture meter and am no longer overwatering them. I dont think you can be closer than 4 inches on center and have room for them to develop, this is pretty close, like I said if I can maybe do 6 inches apart they might grow better. They definately wont go back in a earthbox, it is topheavy and the wind trys to blow it over that is why I built that frame thingy, its a corn walker to keep it from tipping!lol! The earthbox also doesnt hold enough water for the corn. The larger homemade earthtainers would definately be better!

Hi Folks,

First time posting on the Vegetable Forum. I see some excellent results from people growing corn in an Earthbox, but keeping them upright in wind is a challenge. I use my EarthBox for Peppers, and it works fine in that application.

For growing corn, I want a much larger, more stable SWC, so the EarthTainer DIY design works well:

{{gwi:30891}}

{{gwi:33837}}

As the EarthTainers warm up earlier in our Season, I am able to get an early Summer crop, as well as a second Fall crop:

{{gwi:23074}}

First year, I tried to squeeze 4 rows of 6 stalks each into the 'Tainer. While lots of foliage developed, many of the inner stalks were thin and did not produce large ears. I am now going with 3 rows of 5 stalks each and last Season, this spacing worked great. For those that get a lot of intense Sun, perhaps 3 rows of 6 stalks each would work well.

{{gwi:33838}}

Raybo

I plant my corn 10" apart in my 10x16 raised bed. Always have 2 ears per stalk.

I'd think having them planted closer than 8", one would need to hand pollinate them. Early mornings with little or no wind, for 5-7 days...a light shake of each stalk will do a LOT of pollinating. If yer lucky, you can even see the gazillions of pollen as they fall.

This is what I have come to realize as well. I still love to watch it grow tho! I was amazed at just how much pollen is produced, tons!!!!

Hi

My corn was planted every 6 inches because not all of them come up sometimes, I had them in a raised bed and it was hard to keep them straight with the winds.-)

I had 3 different kinds, 1 is a large kernel variety that you can use it fresh or dried, 2 was Maize morado, 3 was Bloody Butcher.

After the corn came up I planted Jeminez pole beans. Most of the corn had more than 2 ears and I did shake them every time that I saw them, lol

Silvia

My wooden frame started as a way to string a string grid in between the seedlings to support them until they were bigger to help with the wind issue! Worked great and I will use again when I switch to the larger mo better earthtainers this fall!
{{gwi:61364}}
this pic is of my corn back in march, you can see how effective it was as a support, just needed to be twice as tall and anchored for support now. hindsight is always 20/20. I am getting better at this, thanks to all you helpful gardeners out there.

Last year when I had used Peaches & Cream corn, it grew to over eight feet tall.

A huge wind storm came through and knocked it all down. So I had to put some posts in the ground at the ends of each row - and then used some heavy string and tied all of the stalks together. This worked well - although the production was really bad - either because I waited too late to plant a second crop (was July 17) or the compost had too much nitrogen/fertilizer in it. They really grew very tall - but the pollen shed even before the silk began to emerge on the ears. Even planting them all 10 inches apart, I still only had one "ear" of corn (a few with two) that had silk - but I didn't get any real produce since the pollen was already gone...

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

A few years ago, we had a really wet spring & summer which meant the corn had an even more shallow root system than normal.

You guessed it...a strong storm came up & laid my corn flat. I put T-posts in at the corners, tied rope to it & wove the rope between the rows...zig-zag style so they'd help hold each other up. Worked quite well & had my usual harvest.

At least farmers have crop insurance, when that happens to their crops. :)