jimmyj
Elite Member
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2007
- Messages
- 4,126
- Location
- Ontario Canada
- Tractor
- Allis Chalmers 616 (Two) and a Kioti CK30 HST with loader and backhoe
Gosh the pics look great. I'm going to have corn with dinner tonight! :licking:
Corn. Again. (Long post)
- Thread starter N80
- Start date
- Views: 4936
Larry Caldwell
Super Member
If you have enough land to rotate crops, you might summer fallow one patch and raise corn on another. The summer fallowed patch gets worked up again as soon as weeds germinate, repeat as necessary. Keeping land bare is a good way to clean it up and increase the fertility.
Mostly ag land is too dear to do that any more, but 100 years ago it was a common agricultural practice.
Mostly ag land is too dear to do that any more, but 100 years ago it was a common agricultural practice.
I agree with the other two fellas who suggested rotation. I put in about an acre of sweetcorn each year, in a 3 acre field. Each year, the other two acres are rotated white clover, which comes back very well on its own, without reseeding the year after the corn. Every 3 years, corn is grown on each acre. The clover adds nitrogen to the soil (which the corn loves), and keeps weeds at bay. I use no herbicides but cultivate with a tractor to control weeds between rows, 3-4 times per season. This semi-organic method also produces very good yields with very light fertilizer applications. To get it to work well, the soil ph needs to be relatively neutral (clover and corn dont like acidic soil), so lime may be needed depending on your current soil ph. I am blessed with very sweet soil that never needs lime, providing I take it easy on synthetic fertilizer application, which the clover lets me do, and still have enough nitrogen for good corn. Deer are easy to keep out of a small corn patch. Surround the patch with steel "t" posts, about 50 ft apart. Run 2 strands of minimum 20 lb test mono fishing line between the posts, one up 18", the other 30". Attach short white surveyors or christmas wrapping ribbons at several locations on each strand. The deer can not see the line at night and it scares the heck out of them when they bumble into it. The ribbons show them where to avoid, and show you at a distance, if a strand has been broken. Coons are also easily dealt with. They can be wiped out in a few nights with "little griz" or box traps baited with peanut-butter coated marshmellows. I have very good sweetcorn every year, but sometimes loose the first batch to ripen to the coons. By the time the second batch is ready however, them coons are all feeding at that big corn patch in the sky. I usually plant 70, 80, and 90 day varieties (silver queen is 90), several times to spread the crop over the season.
OP
N80
Super Member
I haven't rotated the crop but I have expanded it each time. I can't tell any difference between what was planted in the 'new' dirt vs the old dirt. This soil is already very poor. But, I have fertilized the heck out of it. Lime too. Probably need to add mode lime.
Stupid question, a while back I bought a really nice push spreader for my yard and it has rusted to peices in no time. It is kept indoors and never really gets wet. Is lime really corrosive? If so, I really don't want to put it in my new 3 pt spreader.
Stupid question, a while back I bought a really nice push spreader for my yard and it has rusted to peices in no time. It is kept indoors and never really gets wet. Is lime really corrosive? If so, I really don't want to put it in my new 3 pt spreader.
Larry Caldwell
Super Member
You have to wash any spreader thoroughly after use. Pressure water will dissolve any left-over fertilizer, but you need to be REALLY thorough. After you wash the spreader and it dries, fog it with oil. You can use cheap bulk 30wt mixed with diesel in a sprayer or fogger attachment for your air compressor.That will keep it from rusting to junk in storage.
Redbug
Veteran Member
Also George...You can buy 3 point spreaders that have plastic walls instead of metal, designed not to rust. If yours ever does rust out or get holes, you can still keep it going with a little welding of metal patches.
dodge man
Super Star Member
I think they make Round Up corn and round up soy beans. I don't know if the Round UP corn works on sweet corn.
