Don't waste effort doing spacing trials. With good growing conditions the plants you list need about 2 sqft per plant. If you go thinner you will average more and larger ears per plant. If thicker the ears will be smaller and less plants will have useable second ears. Too thick and some plants will have no ear. There is little difference in total yield between 16,000 and 28,000 plants per acre, (43,560 sqft/acre). Yes thicker planting will work but only in very small plots. There is a large border effect in small plots. The outside plants get extra light so yield more. Don't be fooled by those recommending very high populations. That only works in very small plots or for minature corn. You've got the right idea by spacing plantings on the size of the previous planting. If you put in another planting every time the previous planting reaches 6 inches you will have an almost constant supply of corn. This assumes a corn like Mirai which for me stores in great shape in the frig for 10 days. Very early in spring the 6 inch rule will space plantings one and two 4-6 weeks apart. Once it warms up around here 6 inches spaces plantings and harvest 2 weeks apart. I had 7 plantings last year and 9 plantings in 2009.

This thread appears to create more confusion than it really needs to but the real issue is that there are genuine isolation issues for different sweet corn genetics. The 2009 PA Commercial Vegetable Production Guide spells it out as 9 variety classes: Normal (su), Sugary Enhanced,heterozygous(su,se-1 copy), Sugary Enhanced, homozygous(su,se-2copies), Supersweet(sh2), Synergistic,hetero. se&sh2(su,se-1copy,sh2-1copy), Synergistic, homo. se&sh2 (su,se-2copies,sh2-1copy), Synergistic, homo. se&bt2 (su,se-2copies,bt2-1copy), Augmented Shrunken (se-2copies,sh2-2copies), Mirai (su,se-2copies,sh2-2copies). Its usually the Supersweets and Augmented Shrunken that need to be isolated from the other types to avoid starchy kernels. I never worried about real problems from planting 2 varieties within the same class. I've been doing that for many years. This year I'll plant 5 Synergistic varieties that were excellent last 2 years and one new Mirai variety (no isolation necessary from any others). I like to have one variety ready to pick each week with some overlap. So go ahead and mix up the normal or sugary enhanced varieties. You may get a crop that looks and possibly tastes slightly different but you won't have the undesirable starchy kernels- that's the real issue here.

Yeah of course I'm not going to follow a planting schedule for the south, because my gardening zone isn't in the south. Then why post the question? Is it just hypothetical like so many of your other posts? If so then like most hypothetical discussions it is a waste of our time since there are so many specific, but unknown variables that would have to be considered to even begin to make the discussion relevant. If it is for future reference then logically one would wait until they actually move there and can provide the specific details needed to answer the question. And if you ever did actually move to the deep south and garden there then the local experienced gardeners would be your best source of information. I think it's complete garbage to have to research BEFORE you make threads. That simply isn't true. Those who take the time and make the effort to type out their shared knowledge with you rightly expect you to have first done at least the minimal basic research. Why should we have to spend the time spoon feeding all the basic info when it is already so easily available if you just take a couple of minutes to look for it? Plus you are asking for very specific regional - deep south - information about a very specific crop - corn. So logically one would go to sites that provide information specific to the question - deep south gardening forums (which Garden Web has) and websites about growing corn. One would not logically just post such questions to general garden discussion forums. Responsible participation in discussion forums is a two-way street so some of that responsibility is yours. Dave

Chandra, I don't know that I'd trust that lady bug thing from the Farmer's Almanac. I've had lady bugs for 3 or 4 weeks now and had frost just a few days ago! Jhart, I agree with the others on Sprite, Lime Green Salad, Garden Peach and Paul Robeson. Of those 4, Paul Robeson has gottest the tallest--about 4 feet but it just doesn't like me and tends to die before producing ripe fruit. I don't know why. Maybe it is my soil. Baker Family Heirloom is very large and should grow in the ground. Razzleberry is a determinate that gets about 4 or 4.5' tall so it could be grown in a large-ish container. By large-ish I mean at least 7-10 gallons. Winsall did not get as large in my garden as I expected an Indeterminate to grow, but I grew it in a year when we had extreme drought like this year and the other year when I grew it we had excessively heavy rain and all my tomato plants sat in really wet soil for too long and stalled and stunted. I haven't grown it in a 'normal weather year' because I don't think we have those kinds of years here. For me, Indian Stripe grows like Cherokee Purple--taller than your average determinate but not a huge indeterminate. I usually grow it in the ground, but I've grown it in 20-gallon containers and it did just fine. I grew Lillian's Yellow in a year we had exceptional drought (the most severe form of drought) and it only got 3 or 4' tall, but I think it would have gotten taller in good moisture. Yellow Brandywine is a huge monster so I'd only put it in the ground. Rio Grande is a determinate but I would put it in the ground. It grows very vigorously (wide! thick! full!) and puts out a huge load of fruit. Because paste tomatoes like Rio Grande are prone to blossom end rot, and because moisture is hard to control in containers, and because uneven moisture contributes to blossom end rot, I'd put it in the ground. Hope that helps. Y'all. Unless you are going to water like a maniac or are in one of the far NE OK counties that has had plentiful rainfall, expect smaller than usual plants in this year's drought conditions. That will allow you to space them a bit closer than usual (as long as you're NOT using overhead watering) and to grow some Ind. in containers because in these conditions they won't get really huge. Please realize that if we are already in Extreme drought now (as any of you are), the next step "up" is to Exceptional Drought. I find it hard to water enough to keep a garden going in exceptional drought conditions. There's only so much water any of us can afford to pour onto the dry ground. In these conditions, water well early (in April and in May) in an effort to get your plants to grow well and set fruit. However, once fruit are sizing up nicely, you need to be very careful not to water excessively or your fruit will have bland flavor. It is a delicate balancing act. Dawn