hobbiest:

My late planted sweetcorn has tended to be shorter by a couple leaves than early plantings. I think this in response to shorter days. The plant wants to fruit before frost.

The other causes of short corn are lack of water and nitrogen.

hobbiest, I have found that a 70 (or other) day corn produces in fairly close to 70 days (meaning not much variation). If growing conditions allow the corn to produce large stalks then the corn will begin to tassel on the larger stalks. On the other hand if the growing conditions produce corn with small stalks then you will find as you have done that the corn will tassel on small stalks. Sunlight, water and nitrogen are key. In my case if I were to have small stalks it would probably mean that I did not provide enough water and/or nitrogen during the growing process (my garden gets ample sunlight).

Added fertilizer to the plants about 2 weeks ago. Been watering when the soil starts to get really dry. I am beginning to think it may have something to do with the amount of sunlight the plants are getting thru the day this late in the season. Thought I would do a "try `n see" how corn does this late in the season. All of this has been interesting.

Later in the season the plants do respond differently to daylength. I planted some late sweet corn, and it was much shorter than my spring planted corn, yet it produced about the same.

Never figured that day length would do much to a plant but it appears that it does. I just thought that the biggest factor would be cooler weather.

I am learning!

:)

I've never had any luck growing corn late in my area North Alabama If you don't plant it before June 1st it don't do very good or don't make anything. That has been my experience.

I've had good sweetcorn planted as late as the first week of August. The corn is smaller. By counting leaves it appears to tassel with 2-3 less leaves than that planted early in the year. But with enough fertilizer and water the corn was still worth growing.

My late corn has severe ear worms and significant leaf rust. The only plantings escaping severe ear worms are the very earliest.

fruitnut, I heard that oil on the corn silk will stop ear worms.

Early in the planting season, one usually notices wasps starting to show up. Around mid season, they are very noticeable. I haven`t seen very many around for the last few weeks.

Those guys really work on food sources on corn plants, I have noticed. Might have something to do with your bug infestation.

How many leaves are necessary before the tasseling will begin? I have some Kandy Korn that's about 4 feet tall and was planted about 6 weeks ago, no sign of tasseling yet. The weather is still warm here, but nights just dropped down to the 50's.

OK.

Those suckers on a last minute gasp of reproduction are 2 feet tall and the tassels are starting to come out..........

I have one stalk at 4 feet. Silks are showing. Tassels in " Dust everything!!!!! " mode. The rest are screaming......SLOW DOWN!!!!!!!!! You eager beaver you!!!. LOL!

jbclem:

Your Kandy Korn will probably tassel after producing about 14-16 leaves if my memory serves my correctly. Each cultivar will tassel after producing a certain number of leaves. But it might be 18 for an early planting and 14-16 for a late planting with shorter days.

fruitnut, I just counted leaves and my Kandy Korn is at about 10 right now. I'll be hoping the warm weather continues for another month.

I have some Japanese Hulless popcorn planted next to the Kandy Korn, and one of them just tasseled today. I counted 9-10 leaves on some of the plants, the tasseled one had 10. They're also a foot shorted than the Kandy Korn.

jbclem:

You're probably going to need 6 weeks of warm days to bring that KK home. Your days in fall are 5-10F warmer than ours. I think about the latest I could plant KK would be August 7th.

I hope you make a crop!!

Two of my Kandy Korn are tasseling today. I counted 13 leaves on one of them...they were planted Aug 5th. We're having 100 degree weather and the tassels look stressed. I'm upping my watering from every other day to every day as long as it stays this hot.

In previous years the tassels have been infested with aphids. Does anyone know if spraying the aphids with Safer's Soap will affect the pollen?

John

John, I don't think that will affect the pollen.

I notice that the Kandy Korn tassels aren't standing up straight, they are hooking/dropping at the top, and the side tassels are looking frizzy. Is this a result of the hot days past (today is 20 degrees cooler) or something else. Hard to imagine it's lack of watering, I've been giving the corn plenty.