Time For Corn Planting

GoDawgs · April 3, 2019

This morning I got a bed ready for planting corn on Friday. It's a method I've tinkered with the last two years and it works. It's an 18' bed and there will be seven 18" wide circles spaced 27" on center with eight seeds planted 6" apart around the circle. I finally got smart and made a jig so that I can quickly scribe a 9" radius around the center of the circle.

Then I dug a small trench a few inches outside the circle, applied the fertilizer (some nitrogen plus a tad of 5-10-15), covered it over and raked the bed smooth. I will scribe the planting circles again before seeding.

In the far corner of this bed were Shimonita scallions from last spring that were making seed for collection but they were in the way so I yanked out all but one. This year's fall Shimonitas in another bed are bolting prematurely and blooming so I'll collect seed from those.

This bed will be Spring Treat, an early 67 day corn that's very sweet. Then two weeks later, four 18' long double rows of Silver Queen will be planted in the open area of the garden. And finally, two weeks after that, I'm doing a bed of Japanese Hulless Popcorn. That's another of this year's toys, one I've never played with before. It should be interesting and hopefully it's all been planned so that nothing cross pollinates.

Soil temp today is 55 degrees. Spring Treat is one of those corns that doesn't mind being planted in cool soil. However, the high temps will be upper 70's by the weekend and if necessary I can put some plastic over the bed to boost the soil temp to 60-65.

Gardeneer · April 6, 2019

I planted 3 rows of about 10 per row. That was 10 days ago. Nothing is up yet.

GoDawgs · April 6, 2019

Last night's 1/2" of rain wet down the corn bed nicely. This morning I scribed the circles again and seeded the Spring Treat. It was a tad tricky reaching the edges of the circles midway across the bed but I grabbed a piece of pvc pipe, put one end where I wanted the seed and fed the seed down the pipe. Perfect! Why haven't I tried this before?

Gardeneer, do you know what your soil temp was/is? I've got a germination chart that shows expected germination percentages at various temps and how many days it would take. http://tomclothier.hort.net/page11.html
For corn:
At 50 degrees soil temp, 47% should germinate in 22 days.
At 59 degrees soil temp, 97% should germinate in 12 days.
At 68 degrees soil temp, 97% should germinate in 7 days.
At 77 degrees soil temp, 98% should germinate in 4 days. This one is listed as the optimal daytime soil temp for maximum production in the shortest time.

This morning the soil temp was 60 but we have some 80 degree days coming this next week.

Gardeneer · April 7, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

Last night's 1/2" of rain wet down the corn bed nicely. This morning I scribed the circles again and seeded the Spring Treat. It was a tad tricky reaching the edges of the circles midway across the bed but I grabbed a piece of pvc pipe, put one end where I wanted the seed and fed the seed down the pipe. Perfect! Why haven't I tried this before?

Gardeneer, do you know what your soil temp was/is? I've got a germination chart that shows expected germination percentages at various temps and how many days it would take. http://tomclothier.hort.net/page11.html
For corn:
At 50 degrees soil temp, 47% should germinate in 22 days.
At 59 degrees soil temp, 97% should germinate in 12 days.
At 68 degrees soil temp, 97% should germinate in 7 days.
At 77 degrees soil temp, 98% should germinate in 4 days. This one is listed as the optimal daytime soil temp for maximum production in the shortest time.

This morning the soil temp was 60 but we have some 80 degree days coming this next week.

No, I don,t know what the soil temperature was. I thought that the nature will take its course.
BTW, yesterday i saw few poking. Now with the night lows in 50s , th should pop up soon.

ContainerTed · April 6, 2019

I can't grow corn here. In the state of Tennessee, it is against the law to feed wild animals. Here at the Muddy Bucket Farm, the danged raccoons get more than I do. So I decided not to feed the little bandits.

Scooty · April 7, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by ContainerTed

I can't grow corn here. In the state of Tennessee, it is against the law to feed wild animals. Here at the Muddy Bucket Farm, the danged raccoons get more than I do. So I decided not to feed the little bandits.

I'm curious, is it just the raccoons for you? We have problems with the squirrels too. Not sure which is worse. The raccoons here take the entire cob. The squirrels take two nice sized chunks on an ear and leave it on the ground. I'm pretty sure the deer got to some of hours years ago as well....

ContainerTed · April 7, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scooty

I'm curious, is it just the raccoons for you? We have problems with the squirrels too. Not sure which is worse. The raccoons here take the entire cob. The squirrels take two nice sized chunks on an ear and leave it on the ground. I'm pretty sure the deer got to some of hours years ago as well....

The tracks say only the raccoons with an occasional skunk. They break the stalks down and destroy the ears of corn. Most of the time they eat at least 3/4 of the available mature kernels and will wipe out the entire crop in three days.

There are two creeks near us with one running just in front of the big barn seen in a lot of my photographs. I have raccoons passing thru my back yard at night. I don't like to just kill critters. I can buy corn on the cob for about 4/1$. So, I just gave up on growing it myself. The people up the valley I buy from have old fashioned traps and (get this) an motion alarm system covering their 80' X 150' garden. They sell most of the crop to local folks. I like the early golden sweet corn with the large kernels, and they are the only locals who grow it.

As far as the raccoons are concerned, I've been considering starting a small hat business. (Holy Davy Crockett, Batman !!!)

GoDawgs · April 7, 2019

I've had coon problems with the Silver Queen before but not with the early corn. The only reason I can think of is that the patch of early corn is small enough that it doesn't attract coons. Nobody else has corn making. But the Silver Queen comes on when other folks around me have their corn making so maybe by then the coon population is wide awake and on a gluttony spree. Just a theory.

Rajun Gardener · April 7, 2019

I planted peaches and cream on the 25th and they started to pop in 7 days, as of today I have almost 100% up. I think 221 of 225 seeds popped and that's planting deep at almost 3".

This Site says my ground temp is 71°, check yours and see how accurate it is.

http://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature

GoDawgs · April 7, 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rajun Gardener

I planted peaches and cream on the 25th and they started to pop in 7 days, as of today I have almost 100% up. I think 221 of 225 seeds popped and that's planting deep at almost 3".

This Site says my ground temp is 71°, check yours and see how accurate it is.

http://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature

That shows a 24 hour average of 60.9 degrees. Yesterday my soil thermometer showed 60 so that link is pretty spot on. And thanks for that link!

nathan125 · May 24, 2019

I planted 3 rows of Northern xtra sweet (sh2) each row is around 16ft long, they have have popped up and am starting to count for germination rate.
In a week I will plant Hawaiian Supersweet #10...never grown it. 4 rows 14ft long is the plan.
couple weeks from that point I will plant a few rows of another sweet corn....
I will have more corn than i know what to do with......

April 6, 2019	#2
Gardeneer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: NC - zone 8a - heat zone 7 Posts: 4,916	I planted 3 rows of about 10 per row. That was 10 days ago. Nothing is up yet. __________________ Gardeneer Happy Gardening !

April 6, 2019	#5
ContainerTed Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: 6a - NE Tennessee Posts: 4,538	I can't grow corn here. In the state of Tennessee, it is against the law to feed wild animals. Here at the Muddy Bucket Farm, the danged raccoons get more than I do. So I decided not to feed the little bandits. __________________ Ted ________________________ Owner & Sole Operator Of The Muddy Bucket Farm and Tomato Ranch

April 7, 2019	#9
Rajun Gardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Tomato Cornhole Posts: 2,550	I planted peaches and cream on the 25th and they started to pop in 7 days, as of today I have almost 100% up. I think 221 of 225 seeds popped and that's planting deep at almost 3". This Site says my ground temp is 71°, check yours and see how accurate it is. http://www.greencastonline.com/tools/soil-temperature __________________ Rob

April 3, 2019	#1
GoDawgs Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Augusta area, Georgia, 8a/7b Posts: 1,685	Time For Corn Planting This morning I got a bed ready for planting corn on Friday. It's a method I've tinkered with the last two years and it works. It's an 18' bed and there will be seven 18" wide circles spaced 27" on center with eight seeds planted 6" apart around the circle. I finally got smart and made a jig so that I can quickly scribe a 9" radius around the center of the circle. Then I dug a small trench a few inches outside the circle, applied the fertilizer (some nitrogen plus a tad of 5-10-15), covered it over and raked the bed smooth. I will scribe the planting circles again before seeding. In the far corner of this bed were Shimonita scallions from last spring that were making seed for collection but they were in the way so I yanked out all but one. This year's fall Shimonitas in another bed are bolting prematurely and blooming so I'll collect seed from those. This bed will be Spring Treat, an early 67 day corn that's very sweet. Then two weeks later, four 18' long double rows of Silver Queen will be planted in the open area of the garden. And finally, two weeks after that, I'm doing a bed of Japanese Hulless Popcorn. That's another of this year's toys, one I've never played with before. It should be interesting and hopefully it's all been planned so that nothing cross pollinates. Soil temp today is 55 degrees. Spring Treat is one of those corns that doesn't mind being planted in cool soil. However, the high temps will be upper 70's by the weekend and if necessary I can put some plastic over the bed to boost the soil temp to 60-65.

May 24, 2019	#11
nathan125 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Idaho Posts: 111	I planted 3 rows of Northern xtra sweet (sh2) each row is around 16ft long, they have have popped up and am starting to count for germination rate. In a week I will plant Hawaiian Supersweet #10...never grown it. 4 rows 14ft long is the plan. couple weeks from that point I will plant a few rows of another sweet corn.... I will have more corn than i know what to do with......