Well, those have been my experiences with corn as well -- sowing it too much beyond the first of July results in no crop to speak of. I don't know if this is related to the decline in daylength, cooling temperatures, especially at night, or just what. I should add that I've grown mostly Sh2 varieties, which are probably more sensitive to unfavorable conditions than SE and and open pollinated cultivars.

I have wondered if sweet corns are photoperiodic. Wild Teosinte, the ancestor of corn, IS, but it is actually a short-day plant, and doesn't begin to form seed heads until early Autumn. Sweet corns, if they were photoperiodic, would obviously be long-day plants, since they tassle very well in the early to mid summer. I suspect they are probably day neutral, really.

And yes, it's been my experience that corn is pretty unforgiving about other factors, as well, like shade or inadequate moisture, as you mention. I think until it's about 6 to 8 inches, maybe as large as 10 to 12 inches, it is more foregiving, and can recover from improper conditions if they are corrected. Beyond that, it's pretty much ruined.

Still, I don't find corn particularly hard to grow -- just finished clean-picking my corn patch, which was about 500 linear feet total, with plants at about a 10" spacing in the rows. I did half yesterday, and half today, and put a total of 85 freezer bags, quart sized filled about 2/3rds full, into the freezer.

I experimented a bit more with corn this year, whereas in the past, I've stuck with my two tried and true kinds, Breeder's Choice Bicolor and Ruby Queen, both from Burpee. Instead, I tried other varieties, and several plantings. I purchased three kinds of early corn off the seed racks, and sowed them in mid-late april indoors under lights, then out in late May. This gave me my first ears right after the 4th of July, and this crop was totally done and in the freezer by the third week in July, at which time I cut the patch down and replanted with fall greens and some late cucumber transplants.

I do have an experimental late planting in the ground, something I've not really done before either. This corn was planted on June 21st in flats in the greenhouse, and transplanted into the ground on July 10th. It is now about 3 1/2 feet tall, and I am starting to see tassles down in the centers. I have four different varieties, an SE, two Sh2's, and an open pollinated dent corn. Just an experiment, don't know what it will do.

I do know that farmers around here in SE Michigan generally have sweet corn for sale at the Farmer's Market through about the first week in October, so it can be done, but I'm not sure what types they are using -- I suspect for the later plantings, they may have to go back to a variety which matures in about 60-65 days, as these early corns often have better cool weather tolerance as well.

One other thing which, in the past might have doomed my attempts to do late corn is that I tend to stop watering the garden except for a few select things like raddichio and escarole, if it doesn't rain, right about this time, since I pretty much view it as a waste of water when things are mostly done for, anyway. But, this year, I'm making an effort to keep my late corn well-watered, since it went from extremely wet here in June and early July, to bone dry, with no rain of any significance, less than 0.5 inches total, in the last four weeks.

Aside from my experiments in timing, I tried some new kinds, including those new "SHQ" type corns that are SO expensive for the seed. 'Mirai' and 'Bicolor Mirai' -- well, I was not all that impressed. They are good, but no better than my Breeder's Choice Bicolor, IMO. I also tried 'It's So Delicious' which gave me nice ears, but once again, flavor was no better than anything else I've tried. The one new kind I did think was a keeper was 'Sugar Pearls' which I think I got from Burpee -- this is a white Sh2 corn, and is really good, with nice quality ears.

Those are my thoughts on corn.

Dennis
SE Michigan

Thanks for the detailed post. I don't find corn to be difficult either. In fact, it is probably the most hybridized/perfected vegetable out there.

But based on what I've seen and your comments, it looks like corn development is a process. You can deviate slightly by correcting light, heat, water, nutrients, planting time, etc but not too much. It may get to a certain point of no return, where the corn is already on it's way for better or worse.

And I also only grow SH2, so maybe it's more picky too. You can probably neglect field corn and still get plenty of ears.

Here in Seattle, I planted corn designed to work in my area (Seneca Horizon and Precocious) in a very close pattern (3 inch spacing with 8 inch rows) in a raised bed.

I'm not sure if it is the shortened season due to the wacky weather we've had, or the close spacing, but my corn cobs are about 5 inches and kind of bland immediately after picked.

So I find corn pretty picky. Not sure it's worth growing in this area.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's Garden Adventure!

I am in Olympia and have an excellent crop of corn this year. The key is to start your corn indoors in newspaper pots.

this link may help

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting Corn