Corn
 

Any experts in raising corn?

I understand you are suppose to dress them after they get so tall? with something to make them greener?

Re: Corn
 

Wish I could help you, but we never had any luck with corn. We even planted it with beans as is a popular thing to do, in triangular rows. Still, we never had any luck. Hopefully T2W will see your post, and maybe she knows :)

Re: Corn
 

Not an expert but yes I grow non GMO corn for us and our animals every year. Sweet and field. I plant 3 sisters... corn, pole beans that climb the stalk and squash to shade the roots. The only thing I do is use a paper bag to pollinate since I have neighbors that plant GMO corn and we have a lot of bees (we keep bees). So now I'm curious too...maybe I'm missing a step?

Re: Corn
 

Will do some more research. I just have not had any luck thus far.

Interesting about paper bag. How do you do that?

Re: Corn
 

Although I'm certainly not a learned horticulturalist (far from it), however, I have been growing GMO Corn (Mirai Supersweet) for the past three years with reasonable results. I have found little difference in growing it versus other types of Sweet Corn. I plant about 10,000 seeds (with a side dressing of nitrogen fertilizer) and sell it in my roadside produce stand. Mirai Sweet Corn seems to have become the produce which brings the same customers year after year, for it is so remarkably sweet many even eat it without cooking.

Besides making sure that my corn patch remains as weed-free as possible and receive adequate water, about the only task I don't cherish about growing corn is removing the small off-shoots (called "suckers") which can adversely effect growth (not to mention an on-going battle with Raccoons who seem to know precisely when Sweet Corn attains maturity & try their best to beat me to the harvest).

Re: Corn
 

The BEST part about planting corn is once you harvest it (or even before you do) you can make one of these!

http://www.outdoorgulfcoast.com/wp-c.../corn-maze.jpg

Re: Corn
 

The sweet corn is certainly what brings my father-in-laws customers back year after year. They buy plenty of other veggies from him but the corn is far and away the single most popular item.

Re: Corn
 

Describe what you look for as suckers.

Yes nitrogen is what I was trying to remember.

Re: Corn
 

Suckers or tillers are new growth at the bottom of the plant. We don't bother to remove them any more and it doesn't seem to have done any harm. Our non-Gmo heirloom sweet corn is as sweet as any GMO corn and can be eaten right off the stalk raw.

We don't use petroleum based nitrogen fertilizers. We grow in very nutrient dense soil amended by lots of compost and manure. Corn is a very heavy feeder and needs great soil. We use manure tea to fertilize during growth. We don't spray and use Cotton Patch Geese for weeding and pick off ear worms by hand.

While not certified organic we follow organic methods. Do some studying about GMOs and seriously consider planting a good heirloom variety for the home garden and maybe even try doing some of your own seed saving year to year as good heirlooms are getting harder to find.

The paper bag thing... I put little paper bags (the kind that hold a single soda) over the ears just as the silks are emerging... Once they are ready to be fertilized I use our own tassels and hand fertilize to be sure our corn does not cross pollinate with any GMO corn via wind or insects and to ensure good kernel development. It may be a total waste of time but I still do it... but I also now save the time I used to pull the suckers since I didn't see any difference in the corn produced in quality or quantity by that process.

Good luck with your corn patch! :)

Re: Corn
 

Ah, ya--I was gonna ask about the 'tassells' thing; your ears must be fertilized by the 'tassells' on top of the corn plant to have any luck, and sometimes this can get interfered with? (To make sileage, you remove the tassells)