Corn, playing with double rows
 

[FONT=Cambria][FONT=Verdana]This year I'm experimenting with planting corn in double rows, something I read about over the winter. Each set of two rows is 10" apart with 32" between double rows. The aim is to maximize the overall yield in that particular space. There are ten rows where I'd normally plant five or six rows 36" apart. Rows are 18' long.[/FONT]

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/m2Y1lUJ.jpg[/IMG]

[/FONT] In the raised bed on the left are eight hills of 'Buhl' (81 days), a sweet yellow heirloom with eight plants in each 18" diameter circle. It's something I played with last year just for fun to see if it would work and it did so I'm trying it again.

In front of the Buhl are two double rows of 'Spring Treat' (67 days), an early sweet yellow that was planted at the same time as the Buhl.

In the foreground are three double rows of Silver Queen (85 days), planted two days ago, four weeks after the Buhl.

Hopefully they'll all come off at different times with maybe some overlap. We'll see. That's what playing is for. :lol:

How far apart are the seeds within each row?

My experience with corn, is that each plant will give two ears if provided with 2.5 square feet of growing area. My experience is that crowding doesn't lead to higher yields. Just the opposite, giving the plants more space results in higher yields of larger cobs.

I'd love a grow report in the fall.

[QUOTE=joseph;697588]How far apart are the seeds within each row?

My experience with corn, is that each plant will give two ears if provided with 2.5 square feet of growing area. My experience is that crowding doesn't lead to higher yields. Just the opposite, giving the plants more space results in higher yields of larger cobs.

I'd love a grow report in the fall.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for that good information!

How far apart do you sow yours in row and how much space between rows? And are you doing a garden planting or out in a field? 2.5 sq ft is about 1.5' x 1.5'

In the rows I plant 4-5" apart and then thin to an 8-10" spacing. I normally get one ear per plant and sometimes a smaller second ear.

In the bed the circles are 18" in diameter with eight seeds planted equidistant around the perimeter, about 7" apart. The circles are spaced 27" apart on center so that the outermost seed of one circle is 8" from the outermost seed of the next circle.

You won't have to wait for fall for a report. The Silver Queen was planted at my usual time and I'm always picking it by Fourth of July. 8-)
I'm a data junkie so I have last year's stats. I grew five 18' rows of Silver Queen and pulled 140 ears, which includes the small second ears. Average was 1.5 ears per row foot. BUT...that includes those second ears that might be just 6" long or second ears where there was only 3-4" of full kernels due to improper pollination.

Depending on how this year's experiment works out I might like to try your spacing next year as another experiment. :yes:

Editing to add a super interesting link about the stages of corn development:
[url]https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/crops/a1173.pdf[/url]

if you hit the fertilizer just right (at the 3 leaf stage)... you often will get a second nice ear not a small worthless one. we grew a patch of Silver King last year that had double ears on every plant. it was unbelievable to pick it. we had so much we gave it away so it didn't go to waste.

Speaking of corn, the corn in the fields around here which there are a bunch (thousands of acres) is almost 1 foot tall now.:yes:

[QUOTE=clkeiper;697707]if you hit the fertilizer just right (at the 3 leaf stage)... you often will get a second nice ear not a small worthless one. we grew a patch of Silver King last year that had double ears on every plant. it was unbelievable to pick it. we had so much we gave it away so it didn't go to waste.[/QUOTE]

I laid some 10-10-10 about 2-3" below the planted seed like I always do. They're about at the three leaf stage now. Last year's notes tell me that at the 4-5 leaf stage I sidedressed with 2 oz ammonium sulfate and a drizzle of 5-10-15 per 18' row. Do you think I should I do that side dressing now?

yep, if it is at the 3 leaf stage. nitrogen literally evaporates as soon as it gets wet. the plant needs it again already.

A double-row corn update
 

Corn status: The two double rows of early Spring Treat is starting to tassel already!

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/l45yizs.jpg[/IMG]

But it's at the 51 day mark from planting and the seed packet says it's a 67 day corn. It's only about 4' tall but I think the mature height is something like 5'.

The three double rows of Silver Queen came up evenly, are pretty uniform and have had the next fertilizing.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/AGzHlpE.jpg[/IMG]

The experimental "Buhl in the bed" corn is coming along but is so uneven in growth.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/5PDSxu8.jpg[/IMG]

That's my fault for planting it when I did the cool soil-tolerant Spring Treat. The nice warm weather turned chilly for a week about three days after I planted them both so I had to wait for the weather to turn again to replant a lot of skips. I'm hoping the shorties can catch up so that everybody pollinates at once but I might have to do some hand pollination if not. Lesson learned.

This morning I found some kind of black caterpillar down in the whorls of several Silver Queen stalks, munching on the foliage. They had lines down the sides like the Southern Army worm that feasted on the eggplant late last summer. I sprayed all the Silver Queen with bT. That should get 'em. No sign of damage on the other corns.

Needs more fertilizer.

Worth

Thanks, Worth. They got their last dose on 5/4. tassels mean time for that last dose.

GoDawgs: That looks like great spacing to me. Good job on a crop well grown.

At my place, I figure that it's about 25 days from silking to the very-young sweet corn stage. I prefer corn more mature, so for my liking about 32 days.

[QUOTE=joseph;701033]GoDawgs: At my place, I figure that it's about 25 days from silking to the very-young sweet corn stage. I prefer corn more mature, so for my liking about 32 days.[/QUOTE]

Spied the first silk peeking out today! I have to develop an anti-coon strategy for when that time comes. This is the first time is several years I've messed with an early corn due to coons. I'm guessing that because my early corn finishes before the silage corn that farmers grow near me, that first whiff of ready (or almost ready) corn draws coons here. last time I got almost nothing.

I'm thinking about setting up the game cam on that patch when the time comes. After the first sign of damage I might set up a down wind blind and let Mr. Mossberg take care of the problem. :evil:

well... not to discourage you...... but they will clean it out the night before it is ready to be picked has been our experience. they leave it alone until then. we keep an electric fence around each almost ready patch. two strands high.. not just one. some of them are so big they walk right over a low strand. not only do 'coons like it... so do skunks.

The ones around here usually get a little taste one night and then bring their buddies back the next night! Last time they got into the corn it was before it was close to being ready, young half-filled ears scattered on the ground.

Corn Experiment Update
 

This year I experimented with double row planting to maximize yield within an alloted space. Pairs of rows were planted 10" apart with 32" between pairs. Silver Queen to the front, Spring Treat (60 day) behind it.


[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/AGzHlpE.jpg[/IMG]

The first problem I encountered was the inability to pull enough soil to the stalks as much as I usually do. I could only pull some soil (not as much as I wanted to) to the outside of each double row. That might have contributed to the blow down problem and, I believe, the pollination problem resulting in unfilled rows of kernels.

Second, when the corn blew down, the rows in the middle didn't fully right themselves. They're still leaning more than the outside pairs. I think there was just too much mass around them for them to get enough of the sunlight needed to pull themselves up.

Third, it was hard to get through the patch to fertilize the rows and an even bigger mess going through to pull ears.

However, my fears about pollination problems seem to be confirmed. The Silver Queen corn blew down twice in storms and it was right during pollination too. No sooner had it righted itself after the first one, here comes another blow down. This is what the six rows finally look like:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/KsBBlIX.jpg[/IMG]

The ears on the right are representative of what usually grows. The ones on the left are showing the same problem the earlier Spring Treat had. I've never had this problem before:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/8SwAsdG.jpg[/IMG]

In addition, there are a lot of shorter ears and one or two ears so far with a few yellow kernels showing a hint of cross pollination with the 'Buhl'. Both being 80 day corns, the Silver Queen was planted three weeks after the Buhl to avoid cross pollination. However the Buhl was late getting going (lots of replanted skips) and so a few grains of pollen evidently went visiting. :twisted:
My conclusion is that while I scratched the itch to experiment with something new and it was interesting to play with, next year I'll go back to single rows of one variety and 36" spacing even though I'll get only six rows in the space where ten rows and two varieties were grown. Bigger and better ears will make up in quantity and quality for more but smaller and less usable ears.

The jury is still out on growing corn in circles within a bed next year. I've proven to myself that it works. Perhaps I'll do the 60 day Spring Treat in a bed, not a big 80 day corn like Buhl. The Spring Treat has smaller plants more suited to a bed and, being an se corn, they were so sweet, so good and so early that they really were a spring treat while waiting for the Silver Queen.

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July and right on cue the first Silver Queen corn is ready. Yesterday I picked the first 28 ears. It almost seems that no matter when I plant it, it's always ready the week of the 4th. I almost wonder if it's readiness is tied to day length instead of days from seeding. Hmmm....

Seems like pollination was low on those sparse ears. That bad weather when the Silver Queen was in tassel didn't help!

You may consider not planting on mounded up rows and planting seeds deeper.

Not planting seeds deep enough is the number one cause of corn falling over.

The seeds were planted on flat ground, about 1 1/2" deep. I guess it looks mounded because I pulled soil to the rows right before the pic was taken.

[QUOTE=GoDawgs;707107]The seeds were planted on flat ground, about 1 1/2" deep. I guess it looks mounded because I pulled soil to the rows right before the pic was taken.[/QUOTE]

You should consider planting about 2 1/2 deep or so.
1 1/2 is the minimum and not deep enough in my experience.

Your roots will be too close to the surface and in many cases on the surface.
This will cause falling over and over all loss in production.
I see you have a loose sandy loam type soil so even 3 inches will help.

My first bumper crop of corn was my summer between the 2nd and 3rd grade.
Indian flint corn.:)
Did it all by myself.

You have plenty of time to experiment yet this year with a fall crop.
If it were me I would plant the corn in squares more but sorter rows for better over all pollination.

Worth

Thanks for the input, Worth. Deeper it will be but it will have to wait until spring as that patch of garden will be planted to field peas when the corn stalks are pulled. I have tried a second corn crop before but both times it was a battle with ear worms (none at all in this current crop and I'm amazed at that!), corn smut and keeping enough water on it during the worst heat of the summer so I abandoned a second crop. One and done for me! :lol:

Just for grins and giggles, here's a pic of the "furrow hoe" I had a friend make me from a piece of pipe welded to a tiller furrow attachment. The attachment belonged to an old Troy-bilt tiller I no longer have and it's replacement didn't come with attachments.

This thing will drag a 5-6" deep furrow so I can lay fertilizer under the corn rows, pull about 3" of soil over it with a hoe and then plant the corn. It's not quite balanced right but it gets the job done. ;)

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/0PfEhTh.jpg[/IMG]

Great post, thanks all. I had a terrible year here with pollination, all the same supersweet. The weather timing for my first block was just plain awful and only about 25% pollinated well, and all was terribly buggy. Second block is great; must have hit just right. Third block I am hand pollinating this past week and weather was again awful, way too much rain. But I think I salvaged some by reading some about hand pollinating. I also have cantaloupe underneath that block, and while it sounds nice to save space, they are wild and it makes it impossible to side dress.

The last two years I had no trouble with pollination or growth, so this was a shock, but next year I think it will be more conventional. In another couple years maybe I'll have it figured out. I'm heading out now to hand pollinate some more; wanted it to be at 9am but everything was soaked again last night.

I enjoyed your experiments. Just replying because of your mention of Spring Treat. We grew Spring Treat for some years and liked it, then tried Bodacious (and some of its near relatives like Ambrosia). SE (Sugar Enhanced) hybrid like Spring Treat, but well, after a few years Spring Treat dropped off the list in favor of Bodacious. YMMV, but you might want to try it. Here's a link from its producer with data about it.



[url]http://www.crookham.com/our-products/sweet-corn/bodacious-rm[/url]



What we like is flavor, tenderness, and somewhat longer than some "prime" period making it easier to get a harvest of very good corn when schedule is hectic.


Most of ours goes as fast as we can move it from garden to boiling water ten minutes to ice water ten minutes to collander drain, to flat tray in deep freeze, then gets individually wrapped in plastic wrap (like Saran Wrap, but any decent brand that will seal tightly), then in zip lock freezer bags and right back into deep freeze. Any desired number of ears can be removed and boiled for ten minutes and be very close to fresh from the garden corn on the cob -- and we've used some after multiple years and found it still excellent -- no "cobby" taste.


For initial processing we put four to six ears in a two gallon pot of boiling water, depends on size of ears, but that's with pretty good size ears.



I don't think Crookham sells it directly, at least not for garden purposes, but it's available from lots of sources. Those who say something else they sell is "just as good as Bodacious" are, in my view, likely to have long and growing noses. [g]


But really, region and climate might make a significant difference in performance, just don't know.


Something to think about, anyway.

[QUOTE=JLJ_;710291]I enjoyed your experiments. Just replying because of your mention of Spring Treat. We grew Spring Treat for some years and liked it, then tried Bodacious (and some of its near relatives like Ambrosia). [/QUOTE]

Thanks for the recommendation. I've been thinking about Bodacious or maybe a bi-color like Honey and Cream to do one year in place of the Silver Queen just to mix things up a bit.

Spring Treat was chosen for two reasons. First, it will germinate in cooler soil so I can plant it earlier. Second, it's in the 65-67 day finish range where the others are in the 75 day range. This is important because I want to get the following second variety planted so it won't cross pollinate with the Spring Treat but will still finish before it gets too darned hot. They almost cross pollinated this year! Will add another week before planting the second variety next spring.

[QUOTE=JLJ_;710291]Most of ours goes as fast as we can move it from garden to boiling water ten minutes to ice water ten minutes to collander drain, to flat tray in deep freeze... [/QUOTE]

Over the years we've experimented with a ton of different ways to freeze corn but for us it tastes best when blanched on the cob, ice bathed, cut off the cob, tray-frozen and bagged for the freezer. But that's a big area of discussion among folks, kind of like which mayo tastes best. LOL!

And as a convenient side effect, it takes up a whole lot less freezer space. Gotta have room for bags of green peas, field peas, okra, sliced peppers, etc too in the veg section. The rest is full of meat, etc.

Interesting corn thread!

Attached is a photo of our Silver Queen planting. Six rows 3ft. centers with plant about 1ft. apart in the row. 50ft. rows. We had a nearby nesting pair of trashers do a lot of damage to the early small seedlings pulling them up and eating the kernel. I bet we lost 35% of our seedlings this way. Maybe 50% of those counted as lost regrew and matured at a slightly later date. We used no fertilizer on our corn crop other than urine mixed 5 gallons per 45 gallons of water and pumped using a sump pump from a 55 gallon plastic barrel. Our last side dressing was applied using a soil injecting probe but it was a little late in the life cycle of the corn to be most effective. It seemed to spur some unusual growth as the attachment points of the ears to the stalk elongated. We got about 380 ears total counting the sometimes good sized second ears and even a few edible third ears. Lots of the second ears did suffer from less than optimal pollination.

It's been almost thirty years now but Dad and I would grow Silver queen in double rows 1ft. apart and then a 4ft. walkway. We were using 'drip tape' and it cut the amount of tape in half this way. It worked out well.

We collect rain water and have a total of about 5,000 capacity. Next year we are going to plant Silver Queen on double rows 1ft. apart with 4ft. walkways. We plant in fairly deep furrows and do a lot of hilling by hand with a hoe. I enjoy it. My plan is to leave the soil in the middle of the 1ft. double planted row a little low so when we hand water there is a collection area and the water will not run as much into the walkway. Our sump pump pumps about six gallons per minute and we do all of our watering by hand wand unless soil injecting.

For 2019 we are going to play with more soil injection of the 10% urine/water mix going about 1ft. deep and paying special attention to our timing. We also soil injected our tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage and squash once this year. We used no additional fertilizers.

I watched on YouTube some interesting information on field corn production. AgBros Phd or something like that. It seems the trend for higher yield is for closer spacing resulting on one main ear being produced and secondary ears being suppressed by closer spacings. We will work this into our corn plan for 2019.

Attached is four photos of our garden taken on 6-13-2018. We are in Auburn GA 30011. Lifetime member, SSE.

Beautiful gardens!

Wow, a gorgeous garden! When do you plant your corn? My Spring Treat went in 3/30 and the Silver Queen on 4/27. The Queen is almost always ready on the 4th of July even if it's planted before that. Seems like if the flag is wavin' on the 4th, the corn's ready. :lol: Any later finish than that and it seems like there's a lot of insect pressure and smut and the increasing heat doesn't help either. I've never had a successful later crop.

[QUOTE=Garden/Arborist;710343]We used no fertilizer on our corn crop other than urine mixed 5 gallons per 45 gallons of water and pumped using a sump pump from a 55 gallon plastic barrel. [/QUOTE]

You must drink a LOT of water. :dizzy:

[QUOTE=Garden/Arborist;710343]Next year we are going to plant Silver Queen on double rows 1ft. apart with 4ft. walkways.[/QUOTE]

Now, 4' walkways would really help with the hilling and fertilizing. It was really cramped in the corn patch with double rows and 32" walkways but it was the first time out with double rows and I was trying to maximize production. It actually decreased it. Live and learn. But I just checked on the garden map and 4' between double rows would give me four doubles next spring.

[QUOTE=Garden/Arborist;710343]We plant in fairly deep furrows and do a lot of hilling by hand with a hoe. I enjoy it. My plan is to leave the soil in the middle of the 1ft. double planted row a little low so when we hand water there is a collection area and the water will not run as much into the walkway. [/QUOTE]

I enjoy hilling too. There's something peaceful about it. Good idea about the lower area between rows and I'll do that if I decide to repeat the experiment.

[QUOTE=Garden/Arborist;710343]It seems the trend for higher yield is for closer spacing resulting on one main ear being produced and secondary ears being suppressed by closer spacings. We will work this into our corn plan for 2019.[/QUOTE]

I've always planted every 4" and then thinned to a final 8" spacing. That's probably the reason I've not ever had many second ears but the main ears are nice. Fewer skips too.

We're in the Augusta area.

[QUOTE=GoDawgs;710383]Wow, a gorgeous garden! When do you plant your corn? My Spring Treat went in 3/30 and the Silver Queen on 4/27. The Queen is almost always ready on the 4th of July even if it's planted before that.[/QUOTE]

I didn't write it down this year but I believe about 4/20 for the Silver Queen.

We appreciate the kind comments on the garden.

An interesting corn:

[url]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/corn-future-hundreds-years-old-and-makes-its-own-mucus-180969972/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=socialmedia[/url]

[QUOTE=Garden/Arborist;711346]An interesting corn:

[URL]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/corn-future-hundreds-years-old-and-makes-its-own-mucus-180969972/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=socialmedia[/URL][/QUOTE]

All I can say is WOW! Thanks for posting this. The possibilities on so many levels are mind-boggling.

But they didn't say how many ears were on those 16-20' stalks. :lol: