Fully domesticated husband -- My first garden

r0GuE · Jun 5, 2005

Yeah yeah ha ha! No more sports cars, titanium racing bicycles, no more flying airplanes, now all I'm worried about is whether I can make corn grow. So the question is!

How much corn must I plant to insure pollination. My wife (a farm girl) insists that a little garden can't support corn because it takes allot of corn to make pollination happen. Seems to me (a city – albeit small city, boy) that I’ve had a garden as a child with perhaps 15 plants and we got some corn from that.

How many plants, and at what distance etc, should I do. My garden will be small, (300 sq feet).

I also want to do Pumpkins. Is it too late to plant those?

THANKS ALL!!!

PineRidge · Jun 5, 2005

Plant your corn in a block for a small garden. Make 5 to 7 rows on 30" to 36" row spacing. The plants themselves should be 10" to 12" apart and the pollination should be adequate. Sweet corn is always best home grown. We think it sweeter if picked in the morning when the temperature is still cool. Grow some extra cause the animals will get some. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

txdon · Jun 5, 2005

I only planted two rows and the raccoons got every ear in one night. They know when you are going to pick it and come the night before. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Volfandt · Jun 5, 2005

Always go w/multiple rows as opposed to one long single row. It'll germenate much better.

Beware, once the corn silks is when pests appear, especially the ear worms & japanese beetles. I use liquid Sevin to control them.

Also, once they silk, you should plan on picking in about two weeks. Best corn you'll ever have /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Enjoy
Volfandt

Tdog · Jun 5, 2005

txdon,
Prezactly the same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. Haven't tried corn since. Locals tell me the only secret is to plant enough for you & them too. I don't have enough clear land for that.

Indydirtfarmer · Jun 6, 2005

I won't tell her, but your wife is right.....

The more corn you have, the better it will do. Like it has already been mentioned, plant several short rows, as opposed to one LONG row.

Corn can be "manually pollinated". When the tassles are fully developed, take an envelope, and remove some of the pollen (from the tassle). Drop a small amount on the developing silk.... You just did what nature is trying to do.

It's best to do it the "natural way" though.

I plant sweet corn in 5 acre plots. (usually three of 'em) Figuring the animals will get some, I still have more than enough.

Notice on a bigger corn field, how the outer perimeter is USUALLY not as well developed as the corn in the inner portion of the field. There are several factors involved, but ONE is that the outer rows don't pollinate as well as stalks completely surrounded by OTHER stalks.

Take what your wife tells you and run with it! To grow corn better, you need a bigger plot. That means bigger garden, which means more tractor time tilling it, maybe a 2-row planter.... (You get the idea!)

EastTexFrank · Jun 6, 2005

Welcome to the club. I joined 26 years ago, foreign big city boy and country girl, and it's OK, it doesn't hurt. You'll get to enjoy it after a while.

( My garden will be small, (300 sq feet). )

Listen to the lady, she knows what she is talking about. You've had good advice on the corn but my question is ... in such a small garden, why do you want to grow crops that take up so much space? Plant what you enjoy eating and growing but be aware that even a few plants will fill a garden that small. I wonder if you can plant the pumpkins between the corn? Now that's an interesting thought, never tried that.

MossRoad · Jun 6, 2005

Plant the pumpkins now. I started some from seed in jiffy pellets in the house. The sprouted in two days. We transplanted them outdoors a week later only to have cut worms get them. So I replanted seed directly in the garden Saturday. They were up this morning. Chances are they will still ripen long before Halloween. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

HRS · Jun 6, 2005

Rogue, don't worry so much about your corn placement. I've been playing in my garden for 4 or 5 years now, and I change the way I plant in it every year. I've stretched it out and boxed it up. My silver queen always has a tasty ear on every stalk. Now if you do want to bunch it, here is my suggestion. Get a weeper hose, about 75 ft in length, and snake it back and forth making the rows about 15 or so feet long and somewhere around 3 feet apart. Keep it watered, and you will grow a little jungle maze of corn. Some of the cutest pictures I have of my 4 year old is out in the garden when she was 2, just crawling around in that maze. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif