I would leave it alone. I have heard of others doing 36 inch squares with corn planted on 12 inch centers. This will be a good trial. It doesn't look too bad to me.

It's gone this far, I would definitely leave it alone and see what it does. You will still have time to put something else in there after it's done.

I think the reason they say to plant it in squares is for the polination. If your corn didn't polinate then you'd have no ears, right? I mean, I've never planted corn so not speaking from experience. But I think it looks pretty good!

At this point, why yank it out? You'll have ears, albeit relatively small ones, relatively soon and then can plant something else in that space.

I generally plant my corn using 12" spacing in all directions and many people consider that spacing to be too close, but I get nice, normal, well-filled, full-sized ears, so it works for me. When I tried spacing my plants further apart, I did not get significantly larger ears or bigger ears, so I went back to 12" spacing.

You'll just have to experiment and see what works for you in your soil and growing conditions.

I do think the spacing in this year's bed is pretty close and that's why the plants are somewhat thin and spindly--they are fighting for the light, but it is a good learning experience. Next year, if you want to, you can try giving the plants more space in between one another and see how they perform that way.

I am doing "square foot gardening" according to the book and the recommended spacing is 4 per square foot, but I also recognize that just one persons information is not always enough. But yes, it is a good experiment, learning experience.

I have done a poor job with my corn the last few years. I have discovered that nitrogen and water are VERY important for corn, and that some of the larger varieties need more space and sunlight than other varieties. Very good soil can make up for my growing mistakes, but with my poor soil I have little room for error.

Hi y'all,
Now that I have a 10x25 ft bed killed out of burmuda and ready to plant something in it, I would like to plant some corn. Is it too late for it? And if not, what kind should I plant that would mature by fall?

Shekanahh

I planted some Honey Select in a 16x4 raised bed last early August and it was harvested with a few weeks to spare. I had to water it more than normal and the worm damage was a little more than normal. (Normal being what my spring corn experience has typically been.)

I have been experimenting also. I planted 2 rows 1 ft apart, skip 30" plant 2 more rows 1 ft apart. all were spaced 6" apart in the row, then 1/2 of one double row was thined to 1 ft apart. It all looked good till Sun. morning. After having 3 storms in 5 days, it now looks sick. It was 6' tall and just starting to tassel. It is lying down, twisted and bent. The thickly plant corn looked as good as the corn that had been thinned to 1'.

If I try growing corn again, I think I will go back to early sunglow, it will mature in around 60 days and is much shorter and does not catch as much wind. I live in a windy valley and always have wind damage.

Larry

There's nothing wrong with SFG but I think some of Mel's spacing is a bit skimpy and I don't space corn, tomatoes and a few other things as closely as he does, although I tried them his way (and wasn't happy with the results). In our hot climate and long growing season, SFG plants can get overly crowded although the spacing probably works OK in cooler climates than ours where the plants often don't get as large.

If you are going to grow corn using square foot gardening, accept that your plants (and the ears they produce) always will be smaller than those grown with wider spacing and plant a smallish variety like Dwarf Blue Jade or, as Larry mentioned, Early Sunglow--which is not a dwarf but was bred to be very compact.

Square Foot Gardening works best only if you have really, really enriched the soil so if you don't feel like the soil is quite rich enough, feed the corn.

Shekannah,

As Scott mentioned, either late July or early August is the time to plant fall corn. You want your corn to mature after the daytime highs have dropped down out of the 90s. Corn that pollinates in high heat often has problems with sterile pollen and that, of course, results in poor kernel formation.

You can plant just about any variety of sweet corn that you want. If you want to plant an heirloom variety, Country Gentleman is a shoepeg corn that has outstanding flavor, Texas Honey June (available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange) has great flavor and very tight husks that help to keep the corn earworms out, and Black Mexican can be dual-harvested----harvest some at the milk stage for sweet corn and let the rest stay on the stalks until they dry and can be harvested to make corn meal. If you want to plant a sugary enhanced or triplesweet variety, they've all performed equally well here in our garden and I especially like the flavor of Serendipity. Merit is another hybrid that does vey well in our heat, and Silver Queen is a great white corn.

Dawn

Thanks Dawn,
That info was what I needed :)
I prefer heirloom just about anything. Newer is not always better. And I am very leary of genetically modified seeds. As I understand it, the gov doesn't have to notify the public of genetical intervention.
Baker Street had a notice on their website that their seeds showed no trace of such.
A related concern, from reading online, is that studies are showing that pollen from genetically modified corn can and is being carried by the wind, etc, much like the chemical drift that's been discussed here, and mixed with the pollen of non-genetically modified corn crops, affecting them....
And, there appears to be no way to control it. I would think this is a very serious situation! This may be another instance of science out of control.

Shekanahh

I'd side dress them with some nitrogen. Corn is an incredibly heavy feeder and those leaves could stand to be darker green.

Shekannah,

GMO crops are a nightmare and there are already so many issues involving them that blow your mind. The worst one I can think of off-hand is the case of Percy Schmeiser, the Canadian farmer sued by a large agricultural firm after his field of a NON-GMO crop became contaminated by pollen from THEIR GMO crop being grown in someone else's field. Logic would tell you he ought to be able to sue them because his clean, non-GMO crop was contaminated. Instead, in some convoluted legal proceedings that should scare farmers everywhere, the agricultural firm sued him and won! I'll try and find a story about that and link it below. I do want to point out that even though he lost the case at the Supreme Court level, the court set aside the monetary damages Monsanto was seeking. Still, it is of concern to other farmers who fear similar legal battles.

There's also a lot of people who think crops that have been genetically modified to include Bt in them are contributing to decreasing numbers of butterflies and moths in places outside of the fields where those crops are grown. That is worrisome too.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: One Example of GMO Complications

Dawn,
I read from the link and also downloaded the video. I confess to having been only vaguely aware of the massive scope of how dangerous GMO really is as well as Monsanto becoming a corporate agro thug and blackmailer.
This seems almost too evil to believe, but then in view of the other abuses going on politically and corporately, perhaps not.
One thing that comes to mind to deal with this in Oklahoma is people power. Since Oklahoma has recently declared it's sovereignty, technically, if enough citizens as well as farmers approached their state legislators en masse, the state of Oklahoma could ban all Monsanto products from being grown here. However, it occurs to me they might already being grown here and contaminating every non GMO field within reach. In fact, how can we know our own small plots aren't being contaminated by poisonous GMO pollens?

What can we as Oklahomans do about this menace?

Shekanahh, there is a grassroots movement to get Congress to pass a law requiring foods that are the product of genetic engineering to be labeled as such. If we could get Congress to pass such a law then we have the option of voting with our wallets by refusing to buy genetically engineered foodstuffs.

Debra

Here is a link that might be useful: The Campaign

Thanks for this link Debra...I'll send this on to all my friends as well.

Barbara