How to Plant Sweet Corn

There is no end to books on gardening, and that's for a good reason. Most people, even seasoned gardeners, plant thier crops with a good deal of trepidation fertilized with faith that the dry, little, dead-looking seed they hold in their palm will actually bring forth a bountiful yield in its season.

While every vegetable variety brings its own questions as to sowing and care, sweet corn is one of those special golden treasures of summer that we want to pay close attention to in order to gain those succulent yields.

Sweet corn takes a lot of garden space, and if you trust the guidelines on the back of the seed packets, it will take even more than it should. Here I'm going to share some basic planting tips with you that will give good yields and hopefully save you garden space and worry as well.

Things You'll Need

• You'll need to select a seed that's rated for your growing season and is in accordance with the traits you desire: sweetness, hardiness, days to yield, disease resistance, and so forth.
• Your preference of garden tools: hoe, gloves, string and stakes, etc.

Instructions

1. SITE AND FERTILIZATION

   Select a site that is in full sun and has good drainage. It wouldn't hurt to do a soil test. You can order test kits from catalogs or you can sometimes get them from your local county extension office. They will send your samples in for you and you will get your results in the mail. Some kits may give immediate results. Then add whatever amendments are suggested for those results.

   Note that corn is a heavy feeder. It will likely need fertilization, and by that, I mean nitrogen. You can buy pre-packaged fertilizers specifically for crops such as sweetcorn, or you can ad good amounts of your own specially made compost of rotted leaves, grass clippings, manure, and so on. The richer the soil, the more your corn will like it.

   One thing I usually do is rotate my corn crop from one year to the next with a legume crop such as beans or peas which fix nitrogen on their roots and add it to the soil. This will help keep your garden plot healthy, fertilized, and also free of certain diseases that can develop in the soil when crops remain in the same location year after year.

2. TIMING AND VARIETY

   THE NUMBER ONE SECRET TO A GOOD STAND OF SWEETCORN IS TO MAKE SURE THAT THE GROUND IS WARM ENOUGH BEFORE YOU PLANT! When it comes to growing corn, the best adage is "better late than early". So don't be tempted to rush spring planting. If the above ground temperature is risky enough to see a frost, then that means the soil temperature is probably below 60 degrees. That temperature is very unfriendly to sweet corn and germination, and will make for weak growth.

   The sweeter the variety of corn you plant, the less vigorous it will be to standing up to cool temperatures. That's been the primary problem with breeding for sweetness. While most seed companies say that soil temperature should be 60-75 degrees for planting sweet corn, Super Sweet varieties shouldn't really be planted until the soil has reached a nice, cozy 70 degrees or even warmer. Again, consult your seed catalogs. Most of them provide good guides for recommended soil temperature when planting.

   It's also important to note that treated seeds will probably not germinate at all if soil temperatures drop below 55. Trust me, I've had this happen, and I've seen my early efforts rot away in spring rains because I wasn't patient enough to wait for the ground to get as toasty as it should. That's a lot of wasted work and cost.

   So, plant late for good stands of corn.

   If you want your stand to mature at different times so that your harvests can be spaced out over the summer, choose two varieties such as a 75-day variety and an 81-day variety and plant them at the same time, or stagger your plantings with one variety. Also, separate your stands to avoid cross-pollination.

3. INTENSIVE PLANTING TO SAVE SPACE

   Most seed companies recommend planting your rows nearly 3 feet apart. If most people did that they'd use up the bulk of their garden space on this one vegetable, especially since individual plants need to be kept spaced apart as well. Besides lack of garden space being a factor, there's the fact that corn plants need to be close together for good pollination. Have you ever noticed that the outside edges of most corn plots have stunted stalks or fewer ears of corn, while the inner rows are more vigorous? Pollen is moved by breezes. Corn needs neighbors for pollination.

   In my garden I plant my rows much closer together. I have planted in rows 18-24 inches apart, or in grids with each plant only 12-16 inches apart in every direction. The grid fashion is a little more difficult to navigate for weeding and harvest, but it also allows less light in at the base of stalks for weeds to grow. Usually we plant with narrowly spaced rows. We also plant the individual seeds much closer than recommended. We usually space them only about 6 inches apart. In fact, it's even a good idea to space them only about 3 inches apart in case of poor germination. You can always thin them later.

   The real key to this intensive kind of planting goes back to what I said earlier. Corn is a heavy feeder, and there absolutely must be adequate levels of fertizer, especially nitrogen, in the soil. I side dress mine with good compost occasionally throughout the summer. Other recommended dressings are blood and bone meal or alfalfa meal.

4. HARVEST

   Corn is usually ready to harvest about three weeks after the silk first shows on the ears. The kernals will be full and milky, and the silk will have turned brown. You can check on your corn be peeling back a tiny bit of the husk and peeking. If it's not ready yet, just fold the husks back up.

5. IN CONCLUSION

   make sure the ground is warm. That is the one point on which I can't say enough. Make sure the soil is fertile. If in doubt, add compost, natures best supplement. Plant intensively. Then water and wait until those first buttery cobbs fatten on the plant. Once you've had a taste of your own home-grown sweet corn, you'll never want to buy it in the store again.

Tips & Warnings

• Water that corn well if the summer is dry. Side-dress throughout the season with the compost or other fertilizer as necessary. You'll be able to see the response in the perkiness and color of the leaves.