Corn per square

camprn wrote:2 years in a row. pfft......If it was me, I would plant the corn out of the SFG.......

Well, camprn, if I was 20 years younger, maybe. A total of 64 plants down the tubes. I could see it failing one year but two in a row and planted in different boxes each year makes me wonder.

Weird. All of my other plants are doing great. Well, maybe not the brocs because it is so hot right now. We went from winter to summer here. Not a total loss though. Everything else is doing great. So, see why I am saying that the corn thing needs to be re-thought for my situation.

greatgranny wrote:

camprn wrote:2 years in a row. pfft......If it was me, I would plant the corn out of the SFG.......

Well, camprn, if I was 20 years younger, maybe.  A total of 64 plants down the tubes.  I could see it failing one year but two in a row and planted in different boxes each year makes me wonder.

Weird.  All of my other plants are doing great.  Well, maybe not the brocs because it is so hot right now.  We went from winter to summer here.  Not a total loss though.  Everything else is doing great.  So, see why I am saying that the corn thing needs to be re-thought for my situation.

I'm with you greatgranny. We have converted almost all our beds to SFG, so planting out of the SFG isn't much help, especially since you're supposed to plant lots of corn for pollination. We just harvested some corn out of our second box of corn. So far most of the ears have been about 3" long and puny The beans grew up the stalks nicely, but as far as the corn, another "bust". Big waste of time  What variety of corn did you USED to grow in your row garden? sounds like it was a good kind!!

southern gardener wrote:

greatgranny wrote:

camprn wrote:2 years in a row. pfft......If it was me, I would plant the corn out of the SFG.......

Well, camprn, if I was 20 years younger, maybe.  A total of 64 plants down the tubes.  I could see it failing one year but two in a row and planted in different boxes each year makes me wonder.

Weird.  All of my other plants are doing great.  Well, maybe not the brocs because it is so hot right now.  We went from winter to summer here.  Not a total loss though.  Everything else is doing great.  So, see why I am saying that the corn thing needs to be re-thought for my situation.

I'm with you greatgranny. We have converted almost all our beds to SFG, so planting out of the SFG isn't much help, especially since you're supposed to plant lots of corn for pollination. We just harvested some corn out of our second box of corn. So far most of the ears have been about 3" long and puny    The beans grew up the stalks nicely, but as far as the corn, another "bust". Big waste of time  What variety of corn did you USED to grow in your row garden? sounds like it was a good kind!!

I'm not sure what it was but it was not the early one.  I had a huge family to feed so I always planted the late corn.  The ears were larger and the kernels were very deep.  The cobs themselves weren't very large in diameter.  Wish I could remember.

me too!! We've "busted" so far on peaches and cream and Kandy Korn. Hoping for some luck with the Silver Queen. I have a couple of really nice stalks, but the rest seem puny and small. The nice one is the only stalk in about 9 sf, so he's hogging all the goodies from the soil I think!!

I don't mean to say anything negative because for some of you this method works.  It is just not working for me and maybe some others.  Sometimes it just is what it is.  To have a 4 x 4 totally go to waste when I could have planted lots more root crops or peas or maybe even strawberries is for me the reason that I have made these comments.  

Next year I will totally plan differently.

My Quickie corn is doing pretty well.  I planted purple-podded pole beans with them.

Its looking really healthy so far and about 2 1/2' tall.
I'm finding that some things can't be as close as Mel suggests.  I think corn needs a bit of room so I'd never plant 4 per square.  I've got two per but Quickie only grows about 5 1/2' tall.  I have 12 sqs okf corn in the bed since the north sqs are planted in snap peas which are winding down fast now.
As for Swiss chard and 4 per square, never again.  I think 2 per square is enough.  The leaves get so large they shaded out my peppers planted beside them so they are stunted in size.  I guess I should have left those nearby squares open for late lettuce and spinach instead.
Also the Kale is enormous and in the middle of the bed it shoves other plants out of the way.  They need to be put along the far end of a side square where they can hang over the outside edge.
Tomatoes this year are 3 across a 4' wide north row for better air circulation and are doing better this year than last when they were 4 across.
A gardener just has to learn what works for them individually.  Not everything works the same.  It might be soil factors or climate or rain or heat or a number of things.

Update on our Silver Queen corn. This corn has 9 squares because it's the only one that germinated in that area. It's over 9' tall and has TEN ears on it  ! It has 5 tillers (or whatever they're called) and they're putting off ears too! On the "main stalk" there are two ears growing out of the same leaf "crotch". One ear is getting close to ready. I just hope it's pollinated! It looks to be about 10"-12" long :)We have had to hand pollinate since it doesn't have many neighbors lol

SG - Amazing! Can you post a photo? When my husband was still at his parent's home in MO, they raised corn for fodder. One ear, maybe 2 here and there, per plant.

Here's as close up as I can get to get most of the ears in the pic. The ear(s) in the middle of the pic is where there are two ears growing out of the "crotch" of a leaf. That big ear is about 10-12" long

southern gardener wrote:...We have had to hand pollinate since it doesn't have many neighbors...

Hey southern, we planted such a small amount (five per barrel - three barrels worth) it was recommended we hand pollinate. How do you do it? The website I was on recommended running a bamboo pole up and down each stalk...?

gwennifer wrote:

southern gardener wrote:...We have had to hand pollinate since it doesn't have many neighbors...

Hey southern, we planted such a small amount (five per barrel - three barrels worth) it was recommended we hand pollinate.  How do you do it?  The website I was on recommended running a bamboo pole up and down each stalk...?

Gwennifer: Last year, I ran my hand over the tassels and "caught" the pollen in my hands and then sprinkled the pollen on the silks. We had pretty good pollination results, but the pollen was so "light" it blew out of my hands as I was trying to remove it from the tassel, so a lot was wasted.  This year, I pulled off a piece of the tassel, and used it as a "wand" of sorts to pollinate. I read where you could pollinate up to 15 ears this way! Well, the cobs were SO tiny...about 3-4 inches, and the pollination didn't seem to work as well (lots of "empty" kernels); so not sure if that method worked. Those plants were tiny, stunted and ugly...so not really a good example. I'm trying the "pulling a piece of the tassel" thing with this big plant, so I think it will give me a better idea. I'm so tempted to peak and see what's going on inside the ear!!!  A few more days and I'll know I think!!    

SC - I'll be watching for your results. I don't know what ""pulling a piece of the tassel" thing" is but I will look it up. I am so tempted to try a couple squares of corn.

sanderson wrote:SC  -  I'll be watching for your results.  I don't know what ""pulling a piece of the tassel" thing" is but I will look it up.  I am so tempted to try a couple squares of corn.

LOL. It's not a technical term, l'll try to explain. The tassel is sort of "star" shaped. i pull off one of the legs of the star with dry pollen on it, and tap the silks with it. the pollen falls off onto the silks. Like I said, I tried pulling off the pollen in my hands, but they're so light, they blew all over and I wasted a lot of it. I'll post a pic of the big ear when it's ready Im HOPING that there's kernels!!

I've read (and seen a video) of farmers tying brown lunch bags around the tassels overnite and when the pollen falls in the morning, it drops inside the bags.  Untie the bags and shake the pollen over the silks below and nearby for full ears.

Here is a video showing not only how to pollinate your corn, but how to save a clear strain of corn for the following year.  This bagging method should also deter corn borers from your silks.

That is a good video and so thorough!  I wonder how we can do that to the corn in the middle of our beds.  Maybe carefully moving plants aside.

Tricia....You can sprinkle some of the pollen from one of the outer tassels across the silks in the inner rows.  As long as its the same variety, it will work just fine.

Great idea!

quiltbea wrote:Tricia....You can sprinkle some of the pollen from one of the outer tassels across the silks in the inner rows.  As long as its the same variety, it will work just fine.

it has to be the same variety?   

welp...we picked our corn SUCCESS!!! I'm putting it in the "look what we picked" thread   

update on the corn. I'm not sure if this is the right thread or not...but anyway....We planted another 64 plants in a SFG bed without the weedcloth on the bottom to see if there way any difference. the last planting WITH weedcloth was terrible. tiny ears about the size of my thumb at best. We just harvested some from the bed without the weedcloth, and the ears were about doubled the size of the others, but still not huge. I am thinking 4 per square is just too much, but it's definitely better (for us) with the open bottomed beds. By far, though, the best was the one stalk that was in 9" of MM with one plant per NINE squares. This is a FYI only...

Southern....Too bad about your corn.  I know the feeling.
I planted 12 squares of Quickie corn, 2 per square, and mine were very small and very sparse.  Not all of them pollinated.  They are supposed to be small but I think they were smaller than normal (mine were about 4" but fat).
But they sure tasted good.  I just had the first ears for supper tonite.  Mmmm good.

quiltbea wrote:Southern....Too bad about your corn.  I know the feeling.
I planted 12 squares of Quickie corn, 2 per square, and mine were very small and very sparse.  Not all of them pollinated.  They are supposed to be small but I think they were smaller than normal (mine were about 4" but fat).
But they sure tasted good.  I just had the first ears for supper tonite.  Mmmm good.

Glad yours was so tasty! Feels good to "grow you own". after planting around 200 corn plants and getting these results, I think it's fair to say, it's not working. We had really good pollination. We hand pollinated in addition to letting nature do it's thing too, just teeny tiny ears. Gonna try a different plan next year

I think for next year I'm going to do 1 or 2 in each square as a trial to see if it does better.  If not, I will either give up all together or maybe till up a spot and go with the row garden thingy.  I don't want to, but I refuse to have a failure when I could have planted more root crops that are easy to store over the winter months.

greatgranny wrote:I think for next year I'm going to do 1 or 2 in each square as a trial to see if it does better.  If not, I will either give up all together or maybe till up a spot and go with the row garden thingy.  I don't want to, but I refuse to have a failure when I could have planted more root crops that are easy to store over the winter months.

Yep!! I'm with you on that one Good luck and let us know how it goes next year