Corn spacing

[JonLeonard]

Im planning on planting some corn this weekend. Im very late, I know, but I wont get the tractor till tomorrow.

My delima is this, I love white corn, namely silver queen. Some of the others in my (extended) family prefer yellow. I understand that if I plant them close together, they will "cross" and none of us will be happy.

Anyone know how far apart I need to plant the two varieties to keep them from doing this?

Jon

 

[Carl_NH]

Jon,

The wind pollinates when they go to tassle, however you probably will find they come in to tassle (germination) at different times so this may not be an issue. Check the germination dates of each type and this will tell you a lot given both have same water etc. However yu might plant so they are predominantly "with the wind" not up or down wind from the prevailing breezes to minimize this effect.

We planted 4-6 rows along the field corn and never had any issue with the cross pollination probably due mostly to the germination dates of the sweet to field corn.

Carl

 

[Turfman]

Let's see if I can remember my corn genetics.

There are three types of sweet corn. Su, Se & Sh.
The Su is a standard sweet corn, it is the older varieties and the sugar in the kernel rapidly changes to starch, as the corn gets older or very shortly after it is picked.

The Se types are also known as sugary enhanced. They contain more sugar in the kernel, age better and don't starch up as rapidly after picking. The problem with them is that they have a tender kernel and are subject to bruising in picking and shipping.

The last one is Sh, which is for shrunken gene and shrunken gene^2. These have a very small seed, which tends to rot in the ground, so they need to be planted later in a warm soil and fungicidal treatment of the seed is important for seed survival and germination.

The first two types can be planted together without ill effects, however the Sh or shrunken gene varieties need isolation from the other types (and field corn, too). Just check the catalog or the web site for Stokes Seed and see what types you are planting. If any are Sh, you will need to isolate them from other types. If I remember correctly, 200 feet is needed for isolation.

Hope this helps and that I remember all that correctly. It's been a long time since my college days and since I was planting major stands of corn.

By the way, with the Se and Sh varieties plant and row spacing is important to insure larger ears and getting two ears per plant. Rows need to be 36" apart and plants 12" apart in the rows. This will allow for the best germination and development of the ear.

Good luck and if this works send me a dozen ears.

Turfman

 

[PitbullMidwest]

Seed companies pay teenagers a lot of money each year to walk the fields and "detassle" field corn to prevent cross pollination.

I would think pulling the tassle on sweet corn would have the same result.

 

[JonLeonard]

For the amount of corn Ill be planting (100 or so plants) it would be feasable for me to detassle as well.

Have you tried this? Is it a sure fire way to prevent the problem?

Jon

 

[PitbullMidwest]

I haven't personnally but my farmer-in-laws always plant multiple types of sweetcorn and detassle. The various types don't seem to loose anything in taste.

Is it sure fire? Nothing in "farming" is ever sure fire. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Turfman]

If you detassle what will pollinate the corn to produce the kernels on the ears?

 

[JonLeonard]

Is the tassle the "hair" like stuff on each ear, or at the top of the plant? Just wanting to be sure I do it right /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Jon

 

[MarkV]

Man are you guys bringing up old bad memories. Back in the 60’s as a high school kid the main form of summer employment was working for Delmonte detasseling corn in N. Illinois. We use to ride a vehicle that had very tall tires and 10 foot walkways on either side of the vehicle. Us kids would bake in the sun pulling the tassel’s off the corn for $1.10 per hour. After the first day you learn that with shorts and a T-shirt the corn leaves will cut you to pieces. Very much like a paper cut. So after the first day you wear jeans and long sleeve shirts that get soaked in the morning dew and steam you to medium well by noon. Then there are the bugs which were another story.

Jon, the tassel is the part at the top of the plant. I don’t know much about farming but I will never forget that.

MarkV

 

[WVBill]

If the tassle it at the top of the plant and that is where the polination takes place then how does cross polination, or de-tassle-ing make any difference one way or the other to the kernels in the ears?

As you can tell, I'm niether a biologist or a farmer.

 

[PitbullMidwest]

You got to ride? Man were you lucky, I had to walk the fields for Pioneer. Absolutely no breeze, humidity above 90% and temps in the upper 90's. I got a little better pay, about $3.50/hour.

Our Youth Group contracts fields and pays $7.50/hr with the contractor profit going to overseas missionary support. They raised over $10,000 last year from detassling.

I have no clue how corn pollonates. I do know that we pull the tassle and there is plenty of corn to harvest in the fall. Jon, I'd call the county extension office in your area they will give you the facts instead of listening to "experts" like me /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. Let us know what you find out.

 

[RobS]

They grow a lot of seed corn around here which requires the detassling. Basically, every fifth or sixth row is planted with the polinator hybrid. It grows lower than the rest. In mid-summer a machine goes through and clips the tops off of all the rows (the tassles). That eliminates the pollen source from the seed rows. Since the polinator row grows lower, it is not affected by the cutting. They still go through with a machine and kids to finish the job, but it seems a lot easier these days. When all is done, the polinator rows are the only ones with tassles on top and the pollen from those rows migrates (birds and bees) to the individual ears of corn on the remaining rows.

Sometime before harvest yet another specialized machine goes through and chops down the polinator row so it is not harvested at all. The fields are then harvested but the ears are taken whole for processing at the seed factory.

A friends dad used to grow seed corn and the seed companies are very specific about water, fertilizer and such. All the seed corn grown around here is irrigated. Apparently, it's pretty expensive to grow seed corn.

Of course, the latest fad in corn farming is the corn-maze /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Carl_NH]

Tassles pollinate the corn just like fruit trees it only takes one other stalk. Cross pollinating shows up in the next generation seed, that's ther reason for de tassellng seed corn.

carl

 

[Carl_NH]

As kids we smoked the corn silk from the ears, was a long time ago. Tassels are the top of the stalk..

Carl

 

[EdDekker]

The corn plant produces pollen in the tassles. When the pollen is 'ripe' the pollen drops out and is spread by the wind.

The silk of the corn plant receives pollen. Each ear of corn has one strand of silk for each potential kernel of corn (seed). If the strand of silk collects at least one grain of pollen a kernel of corn is produced. If the strand of silk does not get a pollen grain the kernel will not grow, no matter how many grains of pollen the other strands of silk have collected.

When you see missing kernels in an ear of corn this was caused by the lack of pollen.

Hybrid seeds are the first generation offspring of two different strains of corn. The hybrid will have properties which are not passed down to the children of the hybrid plant. The seed producers produce hybrid seed by setting up fields of one strain with the tassels (pollen) removed and rows of the other strain planted to produce the pollen. The pollinator corn seed from these fields will not be harvested, so the result is pure hybrid seed.

The field must be planted so that the pollen and the silk are available at the same time. This is not a problem for self pollinated corn. This is done by planting the two corn strains on different days (if necessary).

You can use the same technique to allow you to grow multiple types of corn in the same garden. Different corn strains/hybrids have vast differences in growing times, the time between planting and expected harvest. The range is from about 60 days to over 90 days. Silver queen is one of the longer growing corns at between 88 and 92 days from planting to harvest. If you plant a corn with a growing time at least two weeks less (74 to 78 days) you will not see cross pollination between your corn.

As has already been pointed out the big problem is the cross pollination of sh2 (supersweet) and any other corn. The cross of the sh2 corn with another type will produce a kernel closer to field corn than sweet corn. The published separation recommendations for Sh2 non-sh2 corn, with concurrent pollination periods, vary from 25 feet to 1/4 mile.

The books and seed catalogs I have read do not indicate the need to isolate non-sh2 corn types from each others.

Silver Queen is an su corn.

You will stretch the corn enjoyment season by planting a fast growing corn as your second corn. I have had good luck with Sugar Buns. It will produce in about 70 days and the ears are good over a longer period than most corn types (about 2 weeks).