A few pics of our sweet corn operation

Oleozz · Aug 1, 2008

Deer, coons, groundhogs, Japanese beetle, sap beetles, worms, weeds, everything tries to get a share of the corn. Just like Billbill I've tried about everything. We have three live animal traps out, music playing, Japanese beetle traps, predator eyes, and the list goes on.
So far the damage from most critters have been minimal.

Mickey_Fx · Aug 1, 2008

Nice stand of corn. What variety do you grow? How far along are you in the harvest?

Quite a few YOU PICK farms in the area here and others with produce stands.

Sweet corn is one of the big farm crops in the area. Long time std commercial variety is Golden Jubilee. Something typ done here is after pollination is the stocks are topped. There are mowers that run through the field taking off the top 18-24 inches. This does several things. More moisture, nutrients for the corn, aid in irrigating and if there is a blow, less chance of a blow over.

Few critter to content with and same for worms.

Corn is typ ready for harvest by end of Aug.

Bird · Aug 1, 2008

Mickey_Fx said:
Nice stand of corn. What variety do you grow? How far along are you in the harvest?

Quite a few YOU PICK farms in the area here and others with produce stands.

Sweet corn is one of the big farm crops in the area. Long time std commercial variety is Golden Jubilee. Something typ done here is after pollination is the stocks are topped. There are mowers that run through the field taking off the top 18-24 inches. This does several things. More moisture, nutrients for the corn, aid in irrigating and if there is a blow, less chance of a blow over.

Few critter to content with and same for worms.

Corn is typ ready for harvest by end of Aug.

I've never seen that done, Mickey; don't think I've even heard of it before, but it sounds logical.

Oleozz · Aug 1, 2008

I've read about folks doing that but for some reason it sounds counter-productive, I'm so anxious to see it grow that I would hate to mow it off.
We raise Silver King, Incredible, and Ambrosia. We've been picking from the earliest planted Silver King (May 7) and looks like we have about two-three more weeks to go. The heat and dry weather is bringing the corn to maturity quicker than I expected.