It's probably more a pollination issue?

http://gardensouth.org/2011/07/09/you-can-avoid-corn-pollination-failure/

you might need to try hand pollinating next time.

This is really more of a gardening issue than an ID issue. You could probably get some good advice on the vegetable gardening forum. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/cornucop

Corn certainly does have its own pollination requirements as it is windblown plus mid-summer in zone 6 is rather late for planting from seed.

If you don't get the info you need in a veggie forum, try googling "growing sweet corn."

FataMorgana

I cannot resist commenting. We are farmers, as opposed to gardeners, and we do raise an acre of sweet corn and sell it on our very busy road. We live near Peoria, IL. Sweet corn needs plenty of fertilizer and does so much better without weeds competing for nutrients/water. I tried to raise it in my veggie garden one year (just for me to freeze) and it was the puniest stuff, and the aphids! wow So now we plant it with the big planter that plants the rest of our regular corn and soybeans. It gets the same fertilizer, but it gets a special weedkiller since sweet corn is more sensitive to some of them that go on our regular field corn... I feel your pain because sweet corn is a huge plant, and to not get anything off of it would kill me too! My farmer hubby has a strong view of planting it in mid-April before he plants the field corn, because they can cross if they pollinate and the sweet corn will not be quite as good. This may all be more info than you want. But I sure love it AND selling it to my VERY passionate sweet corn customers!

in the corn capital of mi ... corn is planted extremely early ... late april ...

the ONLY corn planted in mid summer.. was for the local corn maze ... because they did not care about production ...

there is also a certain mass of the planting.. to insure windblown pollination ... and you dont really tell us.. how much you planted ...

yes.. get ye to the veg forum .... and good luck

ken

Thanks all for the feedback, much appreciated.

I only planted about 5 rows about 20 feet long with a foot between rows.

I figured because they sell seed that is specifically for outdoor planters that pollination wouldn't be an issue because that is even a smaller amount of corn. But perhaps that variety is a much more robust pollinator ?

I planted silver queen corn seed. Its expensive seed. I'm not against trying to hand pollinate next year but don't know if there is any special trick doing it for corn?

I see people were I live with a couple of rows of corn for their own use and it seems they are very successful with it.

I was unaware that corn needed fertilizer as I always thought that it would grow in very poor soil. But now I know.

A foot apart between rows seems too close. We planted rows at least 3 feet apart in Plains state. Was your corn getting enough moisture?

A high extreme in heat and humidity during pollination time can also have effects.

Next time plant them in a square block as opposed to a few long rows. It will help in pollination...and certainly plant earlier.

tj

I will try the 3 foot apart in planting and the blocks not rows. It seems counterintuitive to have them spaced farther apart to pollinate successfully. But if that works, I say hurray.

I planted late so I would have corn after the roadside stands stopped selling. Some of the farmers here do the same for their table and canning corn.

We have had good rain here but it has been damp and cool this summer too. The tomatoes were very moldy.

The corn seedlings started out like gangbusters but then just sort of petered out.

I composted that area good before I planted . Maybe I could add some chemical fertilizers to help.

The soil acidity is among the highest in the country but there are a lot of corn farmers who have no trouble albeit they grow mostly cow corn.

I grew zucchini's in this same space and literally had over a 100 pounds of them.

I don't grow them anymore because I find them tasteless. Acorn squash also does good in this soil.

Thanks for all the suggestions