Larry,

I hope your corn grows well and that y'all beat the critters to some of it.
I grow my corn in rows 12" apart and with the plants 12" apart in the rows. I plant it, mulch it when it is a few inches tall, and never step foot in the "corn patch" again until it is time to pick it. I get a great harvest despite the close spacing. We still have about a dozen freezer bags of corn-on-the-cob in the deep freeze from last year's harvest, and we should be picking this year's crop in July. I have found that corn planted very closely is less likely to lodge (blow over) in high winds, although once the wind goes over 50 mph, it is pretty likely to lodge anyway.

Most years I have to fight the raccoons for the sweet corn, but last year I got about 80% of the ripe ears picked before they found it. And, honestly, by then we had picked several hundred ears and I was getting tired of it, so I didn't even care that they got it.

Merit is a variety we used to grow in Texas and I love its resistance to corn earworms.

This year we are growing our usual "Country Gentleman", aka Shoepeg corn, and Texas Honey June.

One way to keep the raccoons away is to plant pumpkins and winter squash all around the perimeter of the corn bed. That works well some years, if I get the winter squash and pumpkins in the ground early enough that they totally surround the corn before it ripens.

The racoons also bother it less if you plant it "Three Sisters" style with the squash around it, and pole beans climbing it. I think the beans help "hide" the corn from the raccoons. Some people also have luck planting a couple of rows of a very late corn (much later maturing so the two don't tassel/silk at the same time) on all four sides of an early corn. The late corn may help keep the coons from finding the early corn.

I also have had luck for several years in planting an early season corn like "Early Sunglow'. I plant it just as early as I can, temperature-wise, and it often matures in late May from a late March planting. It generally ripens and is picked long before the raccoons are expecting corn to be "available".

We're planning to put in a new corn patch next year and we're going to surround it with electrified poulty netting to keep the deer and raccoons out. This corn area will be several hundred feet away from the veggie garden so I can plant another variety without having to worry about cross-pollination.

I often plant Seneca Red Stalker corn in July for reddish colored stalks to use as fall decorations.

Corn is fun to grow and so tasty. I wish I could grow more varieties per year---I think the most I've grown in one year is six varieties, but it is hard to time them so they pollinate at different times, and most of my improved gardening soil is in one location, so I can't isolate very well by distance to prevent cross-pollination.

Dawn

Dawn

Thanks so much for your reply, it gives me a little hope on growing corn. I only have a 24'x36' garden, it has taken 3 years to build up to this size. It seems as though I have to add a ton of organic matter for every sq. yd. of garden.

I guess I really should be trying to grow over at the other house where I have an artesian well and good growing soil (except it is too wet also).

I have already run out of mulch materal, was using oak leaves, and will be saving grass clipping now.

Well, as I have seen you, and others post. You dont build a good garden spot in wet heavy clay overnight.

Larry

Larry,

It does take a ton (or, many tons) of organic material to improve heavy clay.

Don't forget that you can plant cover crops, also known as green manure crops, to improve the soil. When you plant them in the fall, they overwinter and then you cut them down and rototill them in. They are one of the fastest ways to improve soil.

Dawn

Dawn,

I agree about the cover crops, I have tried buckwheat, grain rye, rye grass, peas and alfalfa. All seemed good but a little hard to till in.

Between this garden and the garden at the home place I must have bought 30 yd's of compost from Fort Smith. The compost works into the soil very well, but I dont like all the plastic and other junk in it.

If I can get caught up on some other projects I may start doing more on cover crops.

Larry