What to do if you must grow corn
Over the last few weeks growing your own food for fun and diet has been a popular topic. Keeping in that line one of the most common summer vegetables is corn.
I find that many people seem to have problems growing corn in their vegetable garden. While corn is not hard to grow, it has some challenges.
Corn grows very fast. You might have heard the old saying “you can here your corn grow.” The faster a plant grows, the more water it needs. This means your corn needs a lot of water. To give it the “gas” to grow it needs a lot of fertilizer, especially nitrogen, and to turn the fertilizer into plant tissue it needs a lot of sun.
Most backyard corn that I have seen is short and yellow, a common symptom that the corn needs more nitrogen. Keep in mind that corn is sixfoot tall grass plant similar to your lawn.
Corn requires wind pollination in order to form kernels on the corn. The tassel at the top of the corn is the male flower; it produces the pollen. Each silk coming out of the ear of corn is a female flower. Pollen from the male must attach to every silk in order to have an ear of corn totally full of kernels. The way the pollen gets from the tassel to the silk is by wind pollination, not bees.
Plants that require pollination by wind need to be planted in groups or blocks, not in single rows. It is best to plant corn in four or five short rows grouped together than one or two long rows. I often see a single row of corn planted against the back wall, and all the pollen blows to Victorville. Space the corn about 15 inches apart and no more than 24 inches between the rows.
You can always help out your corn by hand-pollinating you corn. If you only have a few rows, this is a must. If you are planting a lot of corn, it is not necessary.
Lightly touch the tassel and see if you have pollen on you hand, which looks like yellow dust. If the pollen is being released cover the tassel with a paper bag and carefully bend the tassel over and shake. Hopefully you capture some pollen. Repeat this with several plants. Then take a soft camel hair paintbrush and paint the pollen onto the silk of the ears.
It is a lot of work, but if you want corn it may be the only way.
Corn has a harvest window of seven to 10 days, meaning all the corn on the plants reaches maturity at about the same time. Which means you may want to plant a new block of corn every 10 days to two weeks to provide continuous corn for the summer. Harvest your corn when the silk has become dark and dry, which is about three weeks after they first appear.
The last tip to growing corn is to soak the seed prior to planting. I find it best to soak the corn seed overnight in water, this increases the germination rate and speeds up the germination process. Keep in mind for successful corn it takes a lot of water, a lot of fertilizer, a lot of sun, and some planning and some wind.
Personally, I feel corn is NOT a good choice for your vegetable garden, unless you have a lot of room, water and fertilizer. Finding fresh corn at local farmers markets is easy, but if you really want to grow your own corn, it will grow.