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Just a heads up that you might have some wind issues. In a field the plants in the middle have the ones on the exterior to act as a windbreak.
I've grown corn on small plots like you have, but you're pushing the limits of "minimum planting size".
Also, keep an eye out for worms. There are pests that get inside the ears if you don't spray and/or keep them on the stalk too long.
Our house is pretty windy but it runs perpendicular to that fence behind the corn, so I’m really hoping that acts as enough of a wind break! If not then maybe next year I take over more of the front yard haha
Good, that fence should help a lot. If you see a storm or wind advisory in the forecast you may want to stake the corn to give the stalks some extra support.
At the end of the day it's an experiment. No matter what happens you'll have learned something valuable.
With that little bit of corn, you're probably going to want to hand pollinate. They recommend at least 4 rows about 15 inches apart. Corn is wind pollinated, so it needs a sizable plot and open exposure to get good harvest without help.
Seconding this. First time I did corn, I was disappointed at how weird and shriveled every ear came out. Like, some of them had good, edible spots, bit the rest looked diseased and I thought for sure it was some kind of fungus or pest. Nope. Just didn't get fully pollinated.
I’m going to set up a second 4’x4’ next to this one and that hopefully helps, but yeah sounds like I’ll need to help my plants make out
I did the three sisters (corn, squash, and beans) a few years ago, and it’s been possibly my favorite gardening adventure.
It’s corn! It’s got the the juice.
It's very tasty - you're gonna love it!
Good luck! So many things can go wrong with corn. Keep us updated whether it turns out good or bad.
I’ll be happy if I can get three cobs on my first year haha
Cool! What variety? What zone, if in the US?
Double Standard hybrid sweet corn! Supposed to be tasty and have a nice yellow and white mix of kernels. And I'm in the 9b zone it looks like now (just changed last year I believe)
Protip from my first year growing corn. Make sure you treat the tassels or ear worms will get in there and eat about 1/2 of every ear. There's some pesticides you can use, hit we just used vegetable oil, and it seemed to work.
Childhood torture memory of Dad making us put drops of olive oil on every ear of corn in our vegetable garden that was big as half a football pitch. And these caterpillars with saddles on their backs stinging me.
I’ll have to read up on that! Do you just kind of coat the tassels with it?
Yeah, basically. They'll suffocate in the oil, trying to dig through the silk to get inside the husk.
Awesome, thank you for that tip! Would be a huge bummer to make it so far only to find out worms feasted and not me
Are those like cement blocks for the corners? Never seen something like that.
Yep! They sell them at hardware stores in the US. You drive a spike of rebar through the hole at the top to keep the blocks aligned and stacked neatly.
I too would like to know!
Good luck!
My first year went well until the wind blew it over
Very cute! Unless I am seeing the scale wrong though, you're going to have some very crowded plants. The problem with that is that you'll probably have issues with rust and earwigs.
Oh hmm, the insert said 8-12" inches apart and with the 4x3 setup it should be 8" for the columns and 12" for the rows. I'll have to see how these go and can always adjust for next year!
Haha, yeah, those inserts... In my backyard experience with corn I ended up needing about 2 feet between plants. They get big and can easily have a 10-12" radius of leaves. Maybe thats what they truly mean by 8-12"? It's okay and you have the right idea to try it and adjust each year.
Have fun!
So I have 18 seedlings right now and was going to get another six, so I could have 12 in each mini-plot. Do you think it would be better to move the first plot around a bit and have two sets of 3x3?
I might be confused as to what you mean, but you could do one plot with larger spacing and see how it compares to the one you pictured maybe?
What a handsome garden!
What do you like about corn?
It's got the juice.
I wish thee luck! I have never had luck unless it was about a quart acre. Corn in my experience is can hard. Good you have its own area
How many ears do you expect to get? I've considered doing corn but heard you only get one ear per stalk
I've grown small quantities of corn in the past. In my experience, you'll get two ears or corn perplant on most plants but some will only yield one. This could depend on the verity you're growing
Everything everyone has said in this thread is accurate. This means that even if all plants yeild 2 ears each, not all those ears will be fully developed - especially if you're only growing a few not very wide rows of corn.