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Old April 29, 2018   #3
GoDawgs
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Location: Augusta area, Georgia, 8a/7b
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joseph View Post
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.
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.
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.

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

Last edited by GoDawgs; April 29, 2018 at 10:24 PM.
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