Corn - Page 2

AlittleSalt · May 6, 2015

Feldon, your corn looks wonderful. White corn is our favorite by far.

We shopped around and didn't find any ornamental corn seed, nor did we find any white corn varieties. So the choices were a yellow sweet corn (Several varieties) and field corn. We chose field corn for what we are going to use it for. It's supposed to grow a bigger taller plant than sweet corn. They should produce a lot of shredded organic matter to add to the new soil.

pmcgrady · May 7, 2015

Plant turnips instead...

feldon30 · May 7, 2015

Corn seems a strange choice of cover crop. Tried alfalfa?

AlittleSalt · May 7, 2015

Yeah, corn would be a strange cover crop.

Sometimes my wording isn't clear enough, and I do understand that. After all, I'm writing to a world of readers, so I need to work on that.

My intensions for growing corn are all about the corn taking nutrients out of the clay soil they are being grown in. After this growing season, we are going to add six inches of loam soil on top of this clay area where the corn was planted today. In that added soil, I'm going to mix in those shredded corn stalks and leaves along with shredded oak leaves to add nutrient rich organic matter.

In other words, I'm growing corn in useless soil that will be 6 inches under the loam soil we will add this late Autumn/Fall. I just want the corn to uptake the nutrients of the existing clay soil so I can shred it into newly added loam. Corn is well known for sapping out nutrients (Especially Nitrogen)

I'm guessing this is weird idea? I don't understand why? I'm taking nutrients from useless soil and adding them to useful soil that plans are going to grow in for many years while the useless soil is buried well beneath.

As far as cover crops, a lot are recommended for this area. Red Clover and Hairy Vetch are a couple. I'll think about that in Autumn.

The thread name is, "Corn" not, "Cover Crop". Please don't take that as me complaining - I'm not. I just didn't make my posts clear enough. Now that I have made intensions clear, I welcome everyone's opinions.

Worth1 · May 7, 2015

Salt I knew what you were doing from the get go.
Your wording is just fine.
This is what is going to happen the corn will take the nitrogen from the good soil on top not the bad clay.
Corn roots are shallow for the most part as far as I know.
If it is really heavy clay some plants cant even take up the nutrients due to the structure of it.
The nutrients are locked up in microscopic platelets in the soil.
Worth

May 7, 2015	#18
feldon30 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2006 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 5,346	Corn seems a strange choice of cover crop. Tried alfalfa? __________________ [SIZE="3"]I've relaunched my gardening website -- [B]TheUnconventionalTomato.com[/B][/SIZE] * [I][SIZE="1"]*I'm not allowed to post weblinks so you'll have to copy-paste it manually.[/SIZE][/I]

May 6, 2015	#16
AlittleSalt BANNED FOR LIFE Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 13,333	Feldon, your corn looks wonderful. White corn is our favorite by far. We shopped around and didn't find any ornamental corn seed, nor did we find any white corn varieties. So the choices were a yellow sweet corn (Several varieties) and field corn. We chose field corn for what we are going to use it for. It's supposed to grow a bigger taller plant than sweet corn. They should produce a lot of shredded organic matter to add to the new soil.

May 7, 2015	#17
pmcgrady Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Central Illinois Posts: 1,836	Plant turnips instead...

May 7, 2015	#20
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	Salt I knew what you were doing from the get go. Your wording is just fine. This is what is going to happen the corn will take the nitrogen from the good soil on top not the bad clay. Corn roots are shallow for the most part as far as I know. If it is really heavy clay some plants cant even take up the nutrients due to the structure of it. The nutrients are locked up in microscopic platelets in the soil. Worth