The past week, my focus was researching corn. This will be my first year planting corn, and I would like to be successful! I have not tried growing corn in past seasons because I have always heard it is difficult to control pests and disease. This year, I decided to give it a try. As I’ve mentioned in past weeks, I’ve always been curious about the Three Sisters planting method, so I’m going to give that a try in addition to a couple other areas of corn.
I have seeds for three varieties of corn:
Roy's Calais (90-95 days) – comes from the Northeast, with a history of being grown by the Abenaki and remained in use throughout the Northeast US and Quebec. High Mowing Seeds has an interesting article about it here. I selected this variety for its history and suitability for the area.
Painted Mountain (90 days) – hails from Dave Christensen’s selective breeding in Montana and is best known for milling. North Frontier Foods provides a good summary on their site here. This one seemed a good choice because of its hardiness and adaptability to shorter seasons, and I liked it for possibly using as an ornamental/decorative corn in the fall.
Enchanted F1 (78 days) – a bi-color sweet hybrid corn. I selected this one for a fresh eating sweet corn that grows quickly. Not as cool in terms of having an interesting history or cultural value, but it should be a delicious sweet corn to eat on the cob!
What I learned from my research this week is that I will definitely need to pay attention to planting prep, the corn’s development, and potential problems. I need to prep the soil carefully because corn is a heavy feeder and also has shallow roots. This is also why planting with beans is a smart move – the beans fix nitrogen in the soil and help feed the corn! To give the corn a good, healthy start, I need to make sure the soil is rich in nutrients at the time of planting and side dress during the growing season. The soil needs to be warm enough (it seems like most sources recommend at least 60*) at the time of planting, so I may start some seeds inside. Since corn doesn’t like root disturbance, I will need to start them in plantable pots. I also need to establish weed suppression because I don’t have tons of time for weeding, and keeping the soil weed-free is important. I may use leaves and possibly mulch once the soil warms up. This will also help keep moisture in the soil when it gets hot, and provide some stability as the corn gets taller. (Going back to the Three Sisters, this is also the role the squash plays – they help suppress weeds and shade the roots.) Also, once the plants are established, I may need to thin and trim the plants.
As far as pests go, since I have never grown corn before, I am hoping that I will have minimal problems this year. I will still need to look out for signs of pests and diseases. One of the videos I liked was by Peaceful Valley/Grow Organic. It suggested using a clothespin at the top of each ear of corn, “just below the silk” to keep “corn earworms, corn borers, and other caterpillars” out. (Another video I liked was from MIgardener - I find his videos to be pretty helpful!)
Here’s where it gets tricky for me. One of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of pests is crop rotation. For this reason, I would grow corn in only one area of my yard. That way, next year I can grow corn in a totally separate part of my yard. However, I also learned this week that corn is affected by cross-pollination in the same year of pollination, not only the following year like some other plants. Since corn itself is the seed, it makes total sense. What this really means is that if my sweet corn were to cross-pollinate with the other corn, it may not taste right. And the whole point of growing sweet corn is to have that delicious, fresh flavor! Because my varieties are pretty close in days to maturity (not at least 15 days apart), I can’t count on that to prevent cross-pollination. So, with all of this in mind, I am planning to plant my sweet corn separate from the other two varieties.
That sums up some of the most interesting and important things I learned about corn last week!
In other news, I used some birthday money to treat myself to new self-watering terra cotta seedling pots (something new to try!) and a new grow light. I am ready to take on the next wave of seed starting in a couple weeks! For now, I have:
- A new wild garlic sprout that’s off to a strong start and I already need to plant in a bigger pot.
- Various other trials to keep an eye on, including a jar in which my son planted some seeds a jar a couple weeks ago… what I originally thought was going to be cilantro turned out to be a marigold. Lots of fun.
- Scarlet runner beans growing up some twine around the windows, and some sweet peas (but they are not as vigorous as the beans!).
- A half dozen eggshells prepared for seeds. I’ve seen people use this technique for starting seeds, so I’m giving it a try. I made a little hole at the bottom of each for some drainage. If they work, all I need to do is give them a little “crush” when it’s time to plant, and the whole thing goes in the soil!
- A mason jar with some sprouting mix inside. I got some clever mason jar sprouting lids and a couple packets of sprouting seeds for my birthday, and I’m giving some a go!
I’m also awaiting the day when the snow is gone and I can start working on my new garden site. I do like to hold off on “spring cleaning” in the yard, however, until I know spring has really arrived. This helps give garden friends like solitary bees and other small pollinators more time to make it out of their winter homes. I leave the day lily reeds, squash vines, and other stalks, stems, and brush out as they can provide good winter shelter. Savvy Gardening has a good article about this titled “6 Reasons to Not Clean Up Your Garden This Fall”, which they followed up with "Spring garden clean up done RIGHT".
Have a great week! I'll be here continuing to work on my plans and plants. :)