12 - Corn
Varieties
- Buhl Sweet Corn
Life cycle
Planting details
Plant immediately as soon as you know the ground won’t freeze again. Where we live that’s the first or second week of April. Plant 1-1/2″ to 2″ deep in medium density soil. If you’re in dense clay loosen the soil about 3″-4″ around the seed in all directions.
Soil should be slightly denser than potting soil. Seeds should be 12″ or more apart, of you’re running rows go 24″ to 36″ between rows. Then water the living daylights out of it for the next 2 months. We try to put 1″ of natural or irrigated falling water on our seeds once every 2 days (which is a lot).
Once it’s “knee high by the 4th of July” falling water will be the best way to prevent pests, so increase airborne irrigation frequency, but actual quantity can remain the same. So rather than 1″ every two to three days do 1/2″ every one to two days. If you’re running drip lines that’s cool but expect to need mild insecticide, unless you enjoy critter protein.
Don’t plant against fence lines unless you’re trying to bait in squirrels. Don’t plant near evergreens unless you want under developed sour corn. We grow ours literally just for decoration and animal habitat and use the corn as animal feed, but there’s enough seed in one bag to give a family of 3 boiled corn every other meal for about 2 months.
Your taste and yield/density depends on what you, your neighbors, and anyone upstream puts in the soil, so be cautious of fertilizers and insecticides. Water and organic decomposition are nature’s fertilizers. Keep your best tasting and largest kernels as seed for the following year. Good luck.
Current Seed Start & Transplant Dates
Note: Seed starting and transplant dates do not always correlate one to one with dates shown below. Note correct start and expected transplant dates on the tag of the tray for seed germination. Adjust dates with plant tags on a yearly basis if necessary. 8 ounces of fertilizer is about 1 cup. Consider Sustane various NPK and Alfalfa Meal or Blood Meal for nitrogen.