Next year I may go to one big growout. The way I have been doing it is to succession plant, three plantings staggered by a couple or three weeks. It is beginning to wear on me...maybe one big crop and then freezing would be better. I do get corn earlier than any local for sale, but it is a lot of work. Last year, only the 2nd set pollinated decently, and that was by hand.
Reading this, I am envious of Rajun's block of 18 doz at once, 7"/2 ft rows. I have two sets in and I should have planted again last week. I went with double rows this year, two parallel double rows for each set, 9"spacing with about 18" in the double and then about 3 ft between the doubles. So that takes 6 rows of garden space. All three sets are in the same patch.
The last time I put three sets of corn at the same spot, the corn came up nice, pollinated almost perfectly, but as I finished picking the first set (8-10 per day for dinner) and began picking the second, squirrels started destroying all the remaining cobs, ripe or not. I had to pick all of set 2 to salvage, and 3 never got a chance to ripen at all. I'd estimate I lost 50% of the potential that year. I suppose that will happen again this year if I don't find a way to protect it.
BTW that was triple rows that came in so well, but I never sidedressed. Just 10-10-10 and raised beds with tons of compost. This year with the double rows I intended to side dress as well, but I don' know if I'll get to it.
Now I have to measure how much space I am using for these 6 double rows and calculate how many possible in one big block of 7"/24".
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