I don't think it's your spacing but the watering. We grow our corn in 2 rows. Our distance like the farmers is based on the machinery. Theirs their planters or whatever and ours on our tiller. They do say at least 24 inches apart but yours had room to grow.

Your yield probably had more to do with not watering deep enough or not watering regularly enough, than spacing. When corn is stressed it cuts down on production. Every couple of weeks if we don't have a good rain, my husband lays the hose--no nozzle or sprinkler just the end of the hose-- between the rows starting at the far end of the garden. He turns on the faucet then he sits for about 10 minutes. He pulls the hose about 4 or 5 feet and then sits until it is well watered.

That may potentially be part of the problem. I have a PVC irrigation system that I run in the garden with 1/16-inch holes drilled into the pipe right near the stalk of each plant. I'd then let the water run for about 15 minutes. Surely would have thought that was enough water - especially when it was done once every other day or once every three days.

The season started off with a lot of rain here - then as it approached into July, we had a period of three weeks without a good rain.

But during the main growing time of the corn, the plants were watered pretty well.

bsntech:

I remember seeing pictures of your corn. Seems to me it was nitrogen deficient. Corn needs lots of nitrogen. Also 12 by 18 inches is a little too thick for my liking. I like at least 2 sq ft per plant.

Depending on your soil too much rainfall or irrigation can leach away the nitrogen. So I apply about 40 lbs actual N per acre at planting and again every 3-4 weeks. Last application at about 3ft tall.

Corn needs about 1/3 to 1/2 inch water per day in a humid climate. More in a very hot, dry climate. So this is an inch or two every 2-7 days. I can't tell from your setup whether you actually applied enough or not. Was the corn wilting at midday? That's the best way to tell. If the leaves aren't curling in the afternoon sun it is OK.

I planted my corn in a solid block...20' X 6', with 15" spacing in every direction. I had similar results as you did.

I tend to think it was water, not nitrogen. I side dressed with 28-0-0 at knee high, and again just as tassels first started to peek out. Here in Oregon, when the rain finally stops in late June, you can go until mid September without getting more than a half inch more, so you have to saty on top of the watering schedule.

I don't ever recall seeing the leaves wilting on the corn - but the tips of the bottom leaves were brown as you suggested.

While I don't like using artificial fertilizer, I may do that next year. Just not too sure how much nitrogen compost tea has in it. I basically just have a 55-gallon drum and throw in garden waste and let it seep in water for a few days - then drain it out and use that as the compost tea. I've thrown in rotten veggies, old plants, leaves, and grass clippings.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

I had problems with my corn as well. Mine were in a raised bed and started off really strong up until a week or two before they tasseled. The drought started.

Mine were in raised beds filled with "Mel's Mix"...1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite. The beds were very productive last season which was very wet. This season, with weeks without any rain, the peat in Mel's Mix was a big problem. The peat was almost impossible to keep moist during throughout the multiple high waves and continuing drought. I would water heavily and deeply twice a day, but only the peat on the top would moisten. I could reach in a few inches and pull out bone dry peat.

Although all of my stalks had a full ear of corn, the tassels refused to drop pollen. Most likely due to temps regularly over 90, heat indexes in the 100s, and water stress due to the peat. The peat was detrimental to maintaining a thriving corn crop in a raised bed. When I refill the beds next season I am only adding compost.

I'm betting that many gardeners corn crops were hit pretty hard after the long dry season we had...at least around here.
Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden

Given adequate water and plenty of nitrogen, you would have had a good corn crop.

Re pollen did not shed because of temps, this does not happen with corn. Temps of 110 or higher are no problem for pollen shed. What can cause problems with pollen shed is lack of water and the variety involved. Some varieties are adapted to a different day length and are not happy shedding pollen if planted in a region they are not adapted to. Examples of this are Jala Giant and Inca Giant which are both from tropical areas.

Compost tea is less than 1% nitrogen. It is way too little for demanding corn. If you want to use a good quality nitrogen source for corn, find someone with chickens and get some manure. It runs about 5% nitrogen and can be higher. It takes about 1/2 gallon of dry chicken manure to mature a hill of corn which is 2 plants.

DarJones

FWIW, all the drought stressed field corn I've seen in the tens of thousands of acres around here have leaves whose edges curl upward towards one another. when driving by a field, it looks a little like a field of pineapple. Never managed to drought stress my own sweetcorn to see if it responds the same, likely it does.

Did those stalks with no ear actually have no ear at all?

Silver queen may have a more extensive root system than Dots, excavate and see. Was there any pattern in your plot to the conditions you observed, I.E. one end of the plot or another?

I put the Sugar Dots corn in one 4 x 12 area and the Silver Queen in the other 4 x 12 area. The Silver Queen is in a composted bed that was made last year and grew exceptional green beans, peppers, broccoli, and cauliflower. The area the Sugar Dots was grown in was a brand new bed that was made this year and was filled with new compost from the local compost facility (which is where the compost came for the Silver Queen gardening area as well).

All Silver Queen corn grew very well in its bed. There indeed were stalks that had zero corn ear on them - and they were sporadically located around the bed. All the corn was planted at the same time and grew together.

Speaking of pollen issues - I had just the opposite. It seemed that pollen began falling at least a full week before the silks emerged on the corn. That happened last year with Peaches & Cream corn and it was so bad that I barely got any full ears of corn out of that group. Those were planted much closer together - about a one per square foot.

I'm just concerned about wasting another 30% of the gardening space next year that I could use to grow something else if I have the same bad luck.

Next year I am going to only plant Silver Queen - as I believe the Sugar Dots corn may have been bad to begin with. Last year when I used the Sugar Dots corn, it was also weak-looking and stunted - which was grown in the same area that the Silver Queen corn was grown in this year.

As the leaves begin to fall in our area soon, I will rake them up and mulch them in the vaccuum/blower that I have - then spread them across all of the areas and till them in. Hopefully this will provide some good additional organic matter and nutrients.

Late silking in relation to pollen shed is common on drought stressed corn. Adding water stress in with too thick a planting is a recipe for barren plants, ie plants with no ear. Give your sweetcorn plants at least 2 sqft per plant(3sqft/plant is better), water enough, and apply plenty of nitrogen. This will give you a good crop.

Here's another thing to know. Field corn is commonly planted thicker than sweetcorn. In field corn they don't care about ear size. It's all about lbs of grain per acre. The field corn hybrids are selected for resistance to barren plants. High plant density and small ears maximizes grain yield per acre.

In sweetcorn we want large ears and sometimes multiple ears per plant. All my sweetcorn this year was planted in 30 inch rows with at least a foot between plants. Not one plant was barren. Most had two ears. Try the wider spacing, you'll like those large ears!!

My goal is one very nice ear per stalk. All field corn around here has only one ear...no exceptions unless there was an extra wide space on an outside row.

Sweet corn is not as vigorous as field corn and what I see on sweetcorn where the spacing is too close in the row is that near tasseling time some of the plants will wimp out and not produce an ear.