Corn. Again. (Long post)

[N80]

I need some advice on planting corn. I've planted three times. The first year was perfect. I planted about 6 rows, about 40 ft long. Got well over 300 ears of delicious silver queen. The following two years were disasters. Planted a lot more. Got a lot less. About a couple dozen the second year, none last year.

Two obvious variables account for some of the problem. The first is rain. Good the first year. Pretty poor the last two. I can irrigate but not on a consistent basis since I live 45 minutes away from where I'm planting. The second is deer. They never discovered the first crop. Even though the following two years were planted in the same place the deer did a lot of damage. They eat the whole plant when it comes up. Not much I can do about rain. I can do a few things to help with the deer.

But, I was looking at pictures of the different plots and noticed an amazing thing. The first year almost nothing came up between the corn stalks. The next two years grass and weeds nearly choked out the stalks. Again, these plots are in the same place.

Here was my ground prep all three years. 1) Plowed up with 2 bottom plow. The first year was the first time it was ever plowed. 2) Disked. Several passes at decreasingly aggressive bite.

For some reason this worked the first year. Very few weeds. No grass.

So all this is to ask one question. How do I get rid of the weeds? I can think of two options. I can burn...probably won't help. Or I can poison. I do not have a any sort of large sprayer. Just a handheld. But, I think I can do it with the handheld. It will just be about 20' x 40' or a little bigger.

If I use poison (Round Up type stuff....I already have it) when do I do it in relation to ground prep and planting?

If you've read this far you must be very patient and kindhearted and must be interested in corn. So what do you think?

 

[westcliffe01]

Hey, I have only grown a crop once in my life at high school and it was beetroot and I had the best ones (dumb luck)... So I may not be much use to you.. However, corn is supposedly hard on soil. Needs lots of nutrients, so the commercial people either alternate crops or fertilize like mad. The native Americans combined complimentary crops (squash, corn and beans - if I remember rightly ??).

Have you spoken to anyone in the area growing corn commercially ? I know that if I head west on I80 it is corn from East of us in Ohio all the way through to western Nebraska without interruption... Scary having so much land planted with a single crop, much of which is not for human consumption in the first place... Then the cows in their stinky pens instead of wandering about on the prairie. At least in Iowa there still seem to be grass fed cows. My wife and I called them "happy cows" compared to the poor beasts in the pens... Anyway, I have strayed too far off the original topic.....

 

[JimRB]

My Grandpa used to use the tractor to control weeds. When the corn got too high he got out the hoe. Not sure what year he was born but my Mom was born in 1928. This was both production farming and food/canning corn. Of course production farming back before he retired is not what my cousin does these days. Maybe a factor of 10 or more, actually it might be a factor of 20 times more these days. As a kid I hoed the corn in the backyard garden and applied grass clippings as mulch which kept the weeds down. That worked if you were growing bluegrass or maybe even fescue. Probably not as effective if you have bermuda grass clippings.

What you put on the ground you eat. Some might argue that the weed killers break down but others do not believe that.

I have a few fellows that come get horse manure shavings mix that has composted to soften the soil. The one fellow is a chemist by schooling. He fertilizes and supplements his corn garden according the UGA ag department soil test. Speaking of the local county extension what were the weeds?

Other farmers have told me that some seeds may lay dormant for years only to sprout in certain conditions. Soft soil may for a better weed bed and you happened to catch a lot of seed after the first year.

 

[jimmyj]

Funny I have no luck with corn either. It is a heavy feeder and my soil is very sandy so nutrients wash out of it easily. Also, the wind takes mine down even when I hill it.

I think the solution would be that you need to make sure you have lots of nutrients in the soil. If you really want to go all the way have your soil tested to see what you need to add. The weed thing is the result of one of 3 things:
a) cultivating up the zillions of weed seeds that are in the soil already (and that can lay dormant for years or more)
b) adding weed seeds via manure or mulch
c) losing control over the weeds so that they take over and reseed the garden

I dearly love to eat corn, and the farmers near me use a combination of roundup ready corn with regular spraying and tons of fertilizer to get good crops. I don't want to do either personally, so I'll try manure mulch again but I may just give up and grow what works at my place.

Good luck

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Clemson has a master gardener program that is most likely your best source of information. It is set up to answer questions such as yours.

A Google search will give you the phone number.

 

[N80]

I don't think fertilizer is the issue. I do soil tests and I do fertilize heavily....and the weeds and grass attest to that. The first year it was a fairly easy job to walk down the rows with the hoe and chop weeds. The next two years it was impossible, they were thick like thatch, no way to hoe them.

So does anyone know how you time the round-up in relation to soil prep and planting?

 

[N80]

Thanks greasemonkey I will probably need to do that. I've heard that Clemson's ag programs are getting pretty thin. I think they have done away with the county agent program all together. But, it won't hurt to give them a call.

I usually get good info here too. The first year's crop was done using advice from TBN. You guys are usually pretty sharp....but I'm not sure you're sharp enough to overcome my very un-green thumb.

The best advice might be to buy local corn. It is good and I know it is way cheaper than growing my own....but there is something very satisfying about growing your own corn.....and I do have this tractor that is just sitting there with a plow, and a disk, and a spreader, and a......

 

[JimRB]

Grandpa hit the hoe with a file before he went to work. What weeds are you talking about and how long did you wait? With tilled soil I never had a problem hoeing up in Ohio. Not much experience hoeing in Georgia clay though. I was just a wee lad back when Grandpa was around. I never stayed for more than a weekend so I did not see my uncles working their corn. I assume they drove the cultivator through the fields before the corn got too high. Then the manual labor. No idea what technology my cousin uses now that my uncle has retired, semi retired as he helps my cousin.

If you have a feed and seed store you might start asking there. They can be like a county agent if you get the experienced kids or adults.

 

[nybirdman]

I beleive there is NO Round-Up ready Sweet corn.Small plots will get eaten by deer,raccoons ect.I would try larger plots,buy a row cultivator and cultivate(with tractor) until it gets too high for the tractor.By hand after that.
You also could try rotateing plots.If you have field corn up-wind of your sweet corn it will cross polinate and you will get little or no sweet corn.
Small plots you could may-be mulch between the rows with staw or weed mat.
Plot-saver has worked for me to keep deer out of the gardens.

 

[N80]

We actually have a great old style Framer's Exchange here. I know the owner very well and one of his guys is, in fact, a master gardener. I have no idea why I did not think to ask them.....I buy my corn from them!

You should see this place...it is right out of the 1940's and is a thriving business.....due to the owner and his excellent employees.

 

[Duffster]

If you have field corn up-wind of your sweet corn it will cross polinate and you will get little or no sweet corn.

We always grow sweet corn at the edge of a field of field corn with no issue.

It doesn't need to be Round up Ready if you use it before planting.

 

[Luremaker]

Growing a good crop of chemical free sweet corn is a lot of work. We planted 2-1/2 acres last summer. We cultivated every week until the corn was too tall to cultivate then used the hand hoe and pulled weeds two or three times a week by hand. I love working in the garden so I enjoy being out there. We only have a few deer around here and they prefer my clover over corn so I can't help there. I have a few raccoons that enjoy our corn though. Sorry no pictures of us cultivating.

Just after 1st cultivation.

Corn now too tall to cultivate. Time to pull out the hoe.

Late season corn (1/2 acre).

Corn over 7 feet tall. Almost ripe!

Freshly picked sweet corn! Weeds coming back now, too tired to hoe anymore.

 

[Duffster]

Growing a good crop of chemical free sweet corn is a lot of work. We planted 2-1/2 acres last summer. We cultivated every week until the corn was too tall to cultivate then used the hand hoe and pulled weeds two or three times a week by hand. I love working in the garden so I enjoy being out there. We only have a few deer around here and they prefer my clover over corn so I can't help there. I have a few raccoons that enjoy our corn though. Sorry no pictures of us cultivating.

Just after 1st cultivation.

Corn now too tall to cultivate. Time to pull out the hoe.

Late season corn (1/2 acre).

Corn over 7 feet tall. Almost ripe!

Freshly picked sweet corn! Weeds coming back now, too tired to hoe anymore.

Nice looking corn. :thumbsup:

 

[Larry Caldwell]

If you are going to hoe by hand, you need to start early, when the corn is about 2" tall, and then hoe weekly at least until it gets a good jump on the weeds. It sounds like you let the weeds go to seed, so you are going to have a lot of them.

 

[scgargoyle]

Corn can be surprisingly hard to grow, considering how common it is. We used to lose a lot of it to raccoons when I tried it. You either have to grow enough that the varmints can't eat it all, or fence it in somehow. Deer can clear a 6' fence, and have been known to go over an 8' fence on occasion. I know someone with a 22 acre vineyard in VA, and he had to fence the whole thing to keep the deer from eating the grape vines. Any deer that gets inside the fence never gets out, if you catch my drift. My nephew uses motion activated sprinklers with some success. It's also hard to grow much of anything without sufficient water. I know you guys have been having some dry summers; I have property up your way myself.

 

[charlz]

This past summer I had rotated corn into four of my raised beds. I was gone for 2 weeks and when I got back the grassy weeds had taken over two of the beds and not so much in the other two. The two heavily infested beds I took my hand sprayer with glyphosate, gave it just a few pumps so the spray would mostly just dribble out the end. I then worked my way up and down the rows dribbling it on the grass and trying real hard to not get any on the corn. It mostly worked only a few corn plants lost and I did some touch up once the yellowing started and I could see where I missed weeds. The other two beds I hand weeded.

At the end of summer the two beds that were hand weeded were 6-8 inches taller than the rows I sprayed. Water is drip so it is all the same and they got the same fertilizer application. Dunno if it was simply the competition from the weeds, using up fertilizer, or if it was from the affect of the spray on the soil in general but interesting none the less.

A plus was that the weeds I sprayed were so thick they acted as mulch and nothing else came up in those beds. The other beds I had to hand weed a few more times before harvest time.


If you are getting poor germination it could be soil temperatures or too much early moisture. If the soil is too cool it will not germinate well and if too wet the seed will rot in the ground. I grow an sh type corn which is very sensitive to soil temps.

 

[zimbo]

Looks like your in for a tough time!
when you next work the soil, put in some lime, if then soil PH is wrong the plants wont be able to use all the ferts your putting in. Also try and mulch the plants so the weeds dont have any light, and it will help to keep the soil at an even temp for the corn.
If you have space plant a cover crop where your corn has been growing, and before it seeds, plough it in, and plant another cover crop that will stay in over the winter, just to keep the soil covered, a legume would be ideal. Then plant corn in the same place again the next year.
Have a look at the roots, you may have nematodes which are host specific, or a disease your not picking up. Soil temps and moisture at planting, and for a few weeks after are very important, maybe try and plant a little later.

Once the corn is about knee high, add a little fertiliser to the side of each plant, something quite high in N, but with some P and K too, this will give it a boost in the growing stage.

Hope you get it sorted out!


Ryan

 

[kidr]

You're not planting a big area, how about fabric mulch to control weeds? Maybe a hand held tiller if you want to go that way. The corn I see is planted so close together that hardly any weeds grow after the plants get established.

 

[N80]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Will try to put a plan together. Here is a picture of the first year's crop early on:

Here is a picture of the results of about 5 minutes of picking corn.

I'm just trying to duplicate those results but apparently doing it the same way is not going to work.

A cultivator would be nice but I guess the biggest problem is that I just can't be down there often enough to run it frequently enough. Don't know why it was so easy the first time.

 

[charlz]

Don't know why it was so easy the first time.

I have put in a couple of gardens and it seems that the first year is always the best year. Don't know if that is related to NPK availability, microbe activity in soil or dumb luck. After the first year things tend to level out somewhere below the first year.

Are you rotating your crop or are you planting corn in the same ground year after year? You really should be rotating it with other crops or cover crops.