preparing corn/veggie plots

jasonpotopa · Jan 4, 2007

OK, I'll admit i'm new at this scale of "farming" so please don't laugh to hard at my questions.

I have had about 1/8th acre that i tilled, and have veggies/corn/squash in. I bought my Kubota BX2300 1/2 way through last season and have a king-kutter C-Tine cultivator which i used to till up about 1/2 acre more. It's kind of an L shaped plot. The idea I have is to plant row corn on the long end, and put my pumpkins inbetween the corn, then in the short end put my potatoes and possibly zuchini.

The question I have is come spring should i till it up again with the C-tine (OK I know this answer is yes) and plant the corn in rows about 18" apart so I can weed control while the corn is small? (I know with only about 8 inches or so of clearance I'll only be able to do this for a month or so)

Other question is the C-tine was great at ripping the soil and preparing the beds, but not sure it it'd be the right tool for the job for weed control. I have made 2 brackets on my cultivator so I can do final soil prep and plant 2 rows at a time, but am alittle afraid that the tines will disturb the roots if I use it for cultivating/getting rid of weeds between the rows.

I'm open to suggestions of folks who know more than myself (which is probably 99% of y'all)

Thanks

Jason

thingy · Jan 4, 2007

You gotta get you a walkbehind tiller,,,I got one of those older troy built tillers,8 h.p.,,,,but that company got taken over by another and the new ones may not be like the old ones,,another good brand is bcs [or something like that],but they are expensive,,,I'd just go to lowes and get a good bigger rear tined tiller,,,maybe one of those new troy builts?,,,saw somewhere that they still sell the 8 h.p. horse,,but generally they just got the smaller ones,,,,which for weeding between rows is all you need really,,5-6 h.p.,,,rear tine,,my old troy builts tines go forward,which work fine cause it goes slow and is heavy,,some of the newer ones might go forward or backwards,,which may or maynot be good,,you don't want it going to fast,,or having to keep picking up on it to get it to move,,,so,,might wanta test it out in this regard a little before buying,,you don't want one that the slowest speed is to fast,,others will have walk behinds they can tell you about,,,but yeah,,you need a walkbehind,,,and you will before long,need a turning plow,,those big tractor tillers,[I got a 5 ft kingkutter],,will compact the soil hard under its tilling depth,after a few years,,,,so you need a turning plow to go deeper every couple years and than till over it,,just went through this,,and just bought a turning plow this fall,,single bottom 14 inch,,or,,you might get somebody to plow it up for you every couple of years,,,,,thingy

randy41 · Jan 4, 2007

i plant about 2 acres of veggies every year and i'm the only one working it....hopefully my wife will have time this coming season but we will see.
i have a 48" rotary tiller that i pull with my tractor and except for sweet corn and the things i plant into plastic (tomatoes and melons) i plant everything so i can till between the rows with my tractor (squash, pumpkins, broccoli, peppers, etc). then i can hoe between and around each plant by hand. for most crops this has to be done only once and then the plants i want are way bigger than the weeds.
i have a row crop cultivator that i use to weed between the corn rows. in the past i have planted the corn so that my tractor can straddle 2 rows (1 row of corn just to the inside of the tractor tires) and i pull the cultivator between the 2 rows. i may rethink this method this year when its planting time. this requires a little practice (this means killing some crop) before I got good at it and had enough confidence in the system.
all my rows are 100' long. i use a turning plow in the late fall and then a disk before i till.

Darla · Jan 4, 2007

How early in the year would a person plant sweet corn in the Northern IL region? Any particular type of sweet corn better than others? I'd like to try to plant some myself this year.

thingy · Jan 4, 2007

Well,don't know when up there,,,but I plant peachs and cream corn,its a bicolor,,does well every year in drought and in rainy years,and very good sweet corn. Corn is about the last thing I plant[plant tomatoes and sweet tators later],,but ground needs to be good and warmed up,and frost will kill it,,,you could maybe look up the farm extension service in your area and get a rough time when to plant,,,,thingy

johnk · Jan 4, 2007

Darla,
I think the planting time is around may 15th. With this global warming it may change in the future. I always try to plant a little earlier but got FROSTED a couple of times and cost me a lot of work..

randy41 · Jan 5, 2007

I like SE sweet corn varieties. they are sweet but still retain some corn taste unlike the SH2's that just taste like sugar. Bodacious, Ambrosia, Lancelot are some I can think of off hand.

Chuck52 · Jan 5, 2007

Got raccoons? You will certainly find out when the corn is just getting to the picking stage. I tried corn two years in a row. This year I trapped 15 raccoons. Didn't make a dent in the population apparently, as I got maybe a dozen ears from a 30x60 patch of corn. So....I'll grow my other veggies and buy my corn.

Chuck

thingy · Jan 5, 2007

Coons know exactly when the corn is ripe,,Thats how I pick mine,,,look at it every morning,,,when the coons start,,you better be ready to pick,,,,we freeze our corn on the cob,sometimes can some,,,so,we pick it all at once,,that way,we get more than the coons do,,if we just left it out on the stalk,and picked as we ate it,,we might get 2-3 messes,,,they start off slow the first night or maybe two,but than I think they bring more friends every night,,,shot several,,got a good fence,,gotta dog thats house is close to garden,but,it don't do much good,,,you just gotta out hustle the coons is all,,,thingy