Growing Vegetables

If garden fresh sweet corn tastes better to you than the “store-bought” kind, you’re not just imagining it. Unless corn ears are cooled to remove field heat immediately after harvesting, they begin at once to lose sugar. Corn is a heat loving vegetable. Untreated seeds won’t sprout reliably until the soil reaches 60 to 65^°. Extra early hybrids (small plants with rather small ears) mature in about 60 days. The second early or midseason maincrop hybrids mature in 65 to 80 days and have medium sized to rather large ears and plants that reach 6 feet or more in height. Late varieties and hybrids re­quire 90 days or more to harvest; most are tall plants.  

Hybrids are available with golden, white, and bicolored ears. Each type has a distinct flavor. All are good but the “super sweet” hybrids are superior. Unless your growing season is very short, don’t rely on the extraearly hybrids for your main crop, because they are low yielding. Don’t plant late varieties if you live in an area where summers are short. Don’t plant the supersweet or extrasweet hybrids near any other corn, or crossing will spoil the flavor. Popcorn, too, needs a separation of at least 300 feet from sweet corn.

Corn should be planted in a block of at least three rows (rather than in one row) to insure pol­lination. Corn pollen from the tassels must fall on the silks of the ears before kernels (seeds) will form. Wet or very hot weather can interfere with pollination. Miss­ing kernels or poorly filled out ears can result from poor pollination or nutrient deficiencies. Providing you have the room, you can keep a constant supply of corn com­ing from midsummer until fall either by planting small blocks of one to two dozen plants every two weeks or by mixing seeds of hybrids of various maturity dates. Follow the latter course only if you plant a large block of at least three or four dozen plants to minimize polli­nation problems.

In climates where rain comes in the summer, gar­deners generally plant rows or hills on flat ground and supply water with sprinklers if and when it’s needed. But in dry summer climates, it’s best to prepare for a summer of heavy watering by building irri­gation furrows at planting time. Use strings to line up straight rows in moist spaded or tilled ground, scoop out a trench, and pile soil along the rim of the trench. Space rows 30 to 36 inches apart. Plant seeds 4 to 6 inches apart. Use your fingers or a trowel to bury seeds 1 to 2 inches deep in the shoulder of the excavated soil. Make sure you place the seed well down into moist soil. The seeds should sprout in four to seven days.

Unless it’s very hot, seedlings usually won’t need water until they grow 3 or 4 inches tall. As soon as soil around the seeds begins to dry out to a depth of 2 or 3 inches, fill furrows with water. Don’t let seedlings wilt. In dry summer climates, water is the most important part of growing. After seedlings are up and growing vigorously, it’s difficult to give them too much water, and dangerous to give them too little. In places where summers are rainy or cool, you may not have to water at all or only once or twice during the season.

Don’t worry if corn leaves wilt in the hot part of the day; the root system isn’t efficient enough to send wa­ter (even if plenty is there) up to the top of the plant. However, you should water right away if the plant has not recovered its freshness the next morning.

Care

 When seedlings reach about 6 inches tall, give them more room by thinning them to stand 8 to 12 inches apart (closer for the more compact varieties).

Corn needs a good amount of fertilizer. Mixing in compost, manure, or fertilizer before planting may be enough, but in addition to, or in place of that, you generally should feed once during the season. Scatter complete fertilizer in furrows and water it in or apply liquid food in the furrows. Feed anytime between when the plants are 12 inches tall and when tassels form.

Weeds compete with young corn but usually get shaded out as the stalks grow tall. Shallowly hoe weeds every week for the first six or eight weeks. At the same time, scrape loose soil onto the hills around the plants. Pests. Corn earworm is the worst corn pest. The adult moth lays eggs on the silks and the eggs hatch into worms that crawl into the ear to eat the kernels.

One way to reduce worm damage is to cut off the silks about three days after the ears reach full size. If you cut the silks off too soon, you’ll get ears with kernels missing. Another way to reduce earworm damage: using a medicine dropper, put ya teaspoon of mineral oil on the silks of each ear after pollination. The oil smothers earworm eggs.

Harvesting

Timing is critical because the sugar in the kernels turns to starch as soon as the ear is picked or reaches a certain age. In warm weather, corn will be ready to eat about three weeks after you see the yellow pollen flying. When the silks dry up, slit the shucks and inspect the kernels for harvest readiness. They should be large and well colored but not tough when tested with your thumbnail. Milky juice spurts out if the ear is at the best eating stage. Clear juice means wait a few days. If the juice looks like toothpaste, you’re too late.

Pop the harvested ears into ice water if you can’t cook, freeze, or can them immediately. This will slow the conversion from sugar to starch. If you slip and let kernels get past the juicy “milk” and into the drier “dough” stage, you can still add milk and use the ker­nels for creamed corn.

In containers

Midget varieties yield best results in con­tainers. Several tubs with at least three plants each will insure good pollination. Stalks require regular feeding and watering to set ears.

Related posts:

1. Corn Growing Tips
2. Growing Corn in a Home Garden
3. Circle Planting
4. How do Peanuts Grow
5. Rainfall / Water for your Garden