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Vegetable Gardening

Corn Cobs Grow Incomplete

14 years ago

This is my second time growing corn. This year I grew a combination of sweet yellow and sweet red corn. I planted them in mid-march. Like last year, the stalks only grew 3 to 4 feet in height. I plucked some of the red corn I thought was ripe to find this:

{{gwi:97847}}

It looks as if only some of the kernels grew on the cob while others just dried up. Should I have waited longer or did I mess things up along the line somewhere?

This year I built wooden gardening boxes (4' x 4') to combat out of control grass. Lined the boxes with newspaper. Filled the boxes with compost and planted them about 6" apart. Watered them every 1 to 2 days. Where did I go wrong?

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Comments (4)

dlmka
14 years ago
Looks like poor/incomplete pollination. Did you plant several rows at a time? It's recommended that you plant a minimum of 4 rows of corn at the same time to improve pollination. I'm wondering if you don't have enough room and ultimately high enough plant population in a 4'X4' box to get good results for corn.
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greenbean08_gw
14 years ago
I agree, I think it looks like incomplete pollination. I had similar problems last year. This year I'm trying a variety of sweet corn that I can plant closer together so I have more plants in my available space. I won't know for a while if it's done any good or not though.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener
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drderty
Original Author
14 years ago
dlmka,

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I did plant them very close together including last year. I didn't think spacing really made a difference.

In one box I planted two rows of four and one row of two in one 4'x4' box. There are also some baby greens, green onions and sweet peas.

In the second box I planted one row of two. I also planted two Moon and Stars watermelon plants. I wanted to plant only one but couldn't bring myself to destroy the second plant.

Another thing my girlfriend and I argue about is how many seeds are supposed to be sown per hole. I think only one should be put in a hole. She says her family traditionally placed two to three seeds per hole (She's Navajo). Would this have any affect as well?

See pictures:

After transplanting:
{{gwi:97848}}

About three weeks ago:
{{gwi:97849}}
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dlmka
14 years ago
Next year till up some of that backyard for corn. Plant a minimum of 4 rows at least as long as the distance between the 1st and 4th row. If you use traditional ag row spacing of 30" then you will have 90" (7'6") between the 1st and 4th row. Your rows should be at least 7'6" long to insure complete pollination. Corn likes lots of room and needs a high plant population since the pollen drops from the tassel (male flower) to the emerging silks (female flower). If you don't have the room for doing this I would suggest buying your corn from the farmers market and planting something that does do well in a smaller space and has a high economic value to you such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc.
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