Sweet Corn Pollination

[christian1971]

I have 3 rows of sweet corn growing for not quite 3 weeks. I read somewhere that you need 4 for proper pollination. Can I still plant corn? I'm assuming this next corn would not be able to pollinate with first batch because it's behind. Can you manually pollinate corn?

[Worth1]

I have planted two rows of corn next to each other and gotten corn.

Worth

[christian1971]

That's good to hear. Don't know why I didn't do a better job with corn layout. I read enough. Besides wind, do bees pollinat corn? We get lots of bees from neighboring beehives.

[Worth1]

I have seen bees on corn but I think the wind and natural pollination is the main means of pollination.

I mean the bee would have to go to the tassel and then go to the silks.
There is nothing at the silk to attract a bee.
Worth

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by christian1971

I have 3 rows of sweet corn growing for not quite 3 weeks. I read somewhere that you need 4 for proper pollination. Can I still plant corn? I'm assuming this next corn would not be able to pollinate with first batch because it's behind. Can you manually pollinate corn?

You sure can.

I plant my sweet corn in blocks of at least four rows, because that improves pollination, but I also watch, and when the pollen in the tassel is ready (you can see the pollen-dust fly), I also hand pollinate. Here, mid morning is usually a good time, though it depends upon the weather.

I break off bits of tassels and dust the silks. Often I break off bits of tassels and lay them on top of the silks as well, to make it easier for the pollen to get where it's supposed to go, if it isn't all quite ready at the time I break off a piece. I don't remove the whole tassel, ever -- or even most of one, as I want the corn to pollinate itself normally, I just do the above to give a little extra help to any ears that didn't get fully pollinated.

The above can help, too, if some ears form a little later, past main "pollen shedding" time for that stand of corn. If there's a tassel or two that is also late maturing its pollen, it can supply enough bits to use to pollinate the latecomer ears and give them a better chance to develop.

While I do this just to help a stand of corn that should be able to pollinate itself, because I find the proportion of fully pollinated ears greater when I do it, I've known people who did the same with even just a single row of corn and had good pollination results.

You'll probably have good results if you do the above, but if you decide to plant another four row block -- soaking the corn seeds to get them to sprout before planting will give a late planting a quick start. With our short season, I soak all my corn seed about 12 - 24 hours submerged. Then I pour off the water, put the bottle with the corn seeds in it somewhere I will see it often and won't forget it -- usually near the sink (not in the sun). I treat it like I would seeds being sprouted to eat. I run water into the seed bottle and pour off, repeating two or three times to rinse the seeds well, then pour off the water and let it stand until the next time I think about it. I do that several times each day until the seed sprouts.

I make sure I have a place all ready for the seeds to go in as soon as they're ready, and plant them sometime between the time the first bit of root appears and the time when the root and first bit of leaf have appeared. There's probably a window of a week after first sign of sprouting when you can still plant them, as long as you keep them well rinsed so they don't mold. But the larger the sprouts are the more carefully you have to handle them when planting, to avoid destroying the baby root or baby leaf.

After planting you need to keep them watered enough that the sprouts stay moist. Not drowned, but not sitting in dry earth waiting for rain, either.

Good luck!

What sort of corn are you growing?

[Gardeneer]

How about hand pollinating ?
Take a tassel and shake it over the silk ??
Just suggesting.

Gardeneer

[Tormato]

I plant in single rows and hand pollinate. Sometimes I have to freeze the pollen for a few weeks waiting for the silk to show up.

[Worth1]

So you can freeze corn pollen I did not know that.
Like I had a chance of growing corn this year.

Worth

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by Tormato

I plant in single rows and hand pollinate. Sometimes I have to freeze the pollen for a few weeks waiting for the silk to show up.

Weeks?! Interesting!

So the corn you grow would never pollinate without your help? Is it a special variety or is it a unique climate situation or some other reason?

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by JLJ_

Weeks?! Interesting!

So the corn you grow would never pollinate without your help? Is it a special variety or is it a unique climate situation or some other reason?

Just one unique situation, I believe. Climate related? Unknown.

The variety was Hawaiian #9. It took almost 4 weeks for the silks to show up after the tassels were starting to drop pollen. Nothing like that has happened since.