Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post

mathfed · May 14, 2007

I have corn seed planted in a 20 ft by 4 ft bed. The sprouts started popping through the soil about a week ago. I always seed corn to be half the recommended spacing, and then thin plants out as they get taller. This year, a few days after putting seed in the ground, deer trampled a section of my corn bed. In that part of the bed, there are very few sprouts coming up. Since I have extra sprouts everywhere else in the bed, I am thinking of trying to transplant some of those sprouts to the trampled area. Has anyone ever tried something like this? My thought it to take a large spoon, perhaps a soup spoon, and dig enough around a sprout to get the plant and its roots. Then, dig a small hole in the new location to transplant into. Do you think that would work? I don't want to reseed the trampled area because I am going to try for two crops of corn from that bed this summer. Waiting a few extra weeks to pick ears from the new seed would likely push the second crop too close to the first frost date. If you think this will work, what would be a good stage to move the corn seedlings? I usually transplant peppers and tomatoes depending on the number of true leaves they have, but I'm not sure how this translates to corn. Should I move them after they are a few inches tall?

May 14, 2007	#1
mathfed Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Carlsbad, NM Posts: 38	Moving Corn Sprouts? I have corn seed planted in a 20 ft by 4 ft bed. The sprouts started popping through the soil about a week ago. I always seed corn to be half the recommended spacing, and then thin plants out as they get taller. This year, a few days after putting seed in the ground, deer trampled a section of my corn bed. In that part of the bed, there are very few sprouts coming up. Since I have extra sprouts everywhere else in the bed, I am thinking of trying to transplant some of those sprouts to the trampled area. Has anyone ever tried something like this? My thought it to take a large spoon, perhaps a soup spoon, and dig enough around a sprout to get the plant and its roots. Then, dig a small hole in the new location to transplant into. Do you think that would work? I don't want to reseed the trampled area because I am going to try for two crops of corn from that bed this summer. Waiting a few extra weeks to pick ears from the new seed would likely push the second crop too close to the first frost date. If you think this will work, what would be a good stage to move the corn seedlings? I usually transplant peppers and tomatoes depending on the number of true leaves they have, but I'm not sure how this translates to corn. Should I move them after they are a few inches tall?