Sweet Corn Almanac – it’s planting time!

It’s sweet corn planting time for many of us again and many growers are searching my site for information. Here are quick links to my many sweet corn posts over the years. Inevitably there is some overlap. There’s also a full chapter on sweet corn with all this information in my book Sustainable Market Farming, 2^nd edition.

After these links there are seasonal details on planting sweet corn.

• Success with Planting Sweet Corn: Before you plant, understand the 6 sweet corn genotypes and avoid producing starchy unpleasant-flavored corn caused by planting warring types; soil temperature requirements; amount of seed required; seed spacing and depth; an overview of our corn-growing methods; sweet corn crop requirements; dealing with weeds; transplanting sweet corn; my slideshow on Succession Planting.
• <iframe src=”https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/9pRbveAmBcqtaz” width=”510″ height=”420″frameborder=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ scrolling=”no”style=”border: var(–border-1) solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width:100%;”allowfullscreen></iframe><div style=”margin-bottom:5px”><strong><a href=”https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/succession-planting-for-continuous-vegetable-harvests-2024-60-mins-pdf/280479965″ title=”succession-planting-for-continuous-vegetable-harvests-2024-60-mins-pdf” target=”_blank”>succession-planting-for-continuous-vegetable-harvests-2024-60-mins-pdf</a></strong>from <strong><a href=”https://www.slideshare.net/SustainableMarketFarming” target=”_blank”>Pam Dawling</a></strong></div>
• Preparing for Sweet Corn: Crop rotations; planning for succession plantings for a continuous supply; planning preceding cover crops for next year; problems with living mulch; under-sowing for a follow-on cover crop; caring for growing sweet corn; staying on top of weeds; sweet corn growth stages.

• Growing Great Sweet Corn: More on caring for sweet corn as it grows, including resources; under-sowing sweet corn; succession planting, including a link to my slideshow on this topic; last worthwhile sowing date; fast-maturing sweet corn varieties; sweet corn season extension including transplanting; pests and diseases of sweet corn; harvesting sweet corn.
• Sweet Corn, Potatoes and Okra: includes my slideshow on succession planting, sowing with an EarthWay seeder; using a wheel hoe between corn rows; hoeing sweet corn; our sowing and harvest start dates; dealing with raccoons, skunks and curious cats.

• Rain, corn and beans: Seed spacing with year-old seed if you must; sowing by hand; Video of me presenting Succession Planting for Continuous Vegetable Harvests ten years ago (I’ve updated the presentation somewhat since then); sowing transplants in Styrofoam flats and floating them in a tank of water. The photo got lost from that post, so here it is now.
• Growing Sweet Corn for the Whole Summer, a Mother Earth News blog post: season extension in spring with clear plastic; transplanting; required soil temperatures; avoid mixing genotypes; plant in blocks, not single rows; water and weed; don’t stop sowing too soon. If you search for the title of my post on the MEN Organic Gardening blog you’ll also find other posts on MEN about sweet corn. https://www.motherearthnews.com/search/sweet+corn
• Sweet Corn all Summer, Curing Onions, Sowing Fall Brassicas: links to my post on Mother Earth News Organic Gardening blog, and Barbara Damrosch’s post on succession planting of warm weather crops.

Skunks

When harvesting our fifth planting of sweet corn (Bodacious, Kandy Korn, Sparkler and Silver Queen), I beefed up our raccoon traps following the suggestions from Joanna Reuter of Chert Hollow Farm, staking the traps down and smearing peanut butter high on the stake in the back of the cage. Well, the first morning I caught a small, very white skunk! I let it out carefully. The next morning I caught the same skunk again. And the third morning, again. The little animal never seemed ferocious or scared, more curious about how to get out. I was more scared than it was, I think! I bet you’re wondering how I released it. Well, I gently laid a large plastic bag over the top and nearside of the trap (just in case. . . ) and gingerly unlatched the door. Then  I used a strong stick to lever up the door a bit, as it is a tight fit. Then I bravely put my foot on top of the trap and pulled the door up by hand. Then I dropped the stick and ran! Later the skunk ambled out. By the third morning I think it was happy with the arrangement. A small can of cat food is a big meal for a small skunk, after all. But I was tired of the game, so I took the traps away. Raccoons don’t seem to like Silver Queen as much as Kandy Korn anyway, maybe because the husks are tighter and harder to rip off. Actually I like Kandy Korn better than Silver Queen too! Meanwhile we are working on setting up a temporary electric fence around the last corn patch, with our new solar charger.

A Way to Garden

For a valuable second opinion, see Margaret Roach (who grows in Massachusetts) in A Way to Garden:

• A new corn, bred for organic farms and gardens, tells a bigger story. ‘Who Get’s Kissed?,’ the new organic sweet corn created in collaboration with Organic Seed Alliance, an organic farmer in Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, meant to meet the organic grower’s needs.
• A new “brand” of seed in town: OSSI, or Open Source Seed Initiative. With a podcast of Jack Kloppenburg discussing OSSI

Seasonal tips on planting sweet corn

• Ensure you have compatible sweet corn varieties, and that none of your seed is older than one year.
• Plan where your corn will go, and calculate how much seed you need.
• Use a soil thermometer! Flag its location so you don’t lose track of it! Sweet corn needs warm soil. Catalogs usually indicate the soil temperature (measured at 4″ (10 cm) deep at 9am) recommended for each variety. 50°F (10°C) is the absolute minimum, and applies to treated seed and OP or (su) varieties only. 60°F (15.5°C) is better for most, and 65°F (18°C) or higher is required by some varieties.
• Corn has no tolerance of frost, but escape from a late spring frost is possible if the seedlings are less than two weeks old and not yet very tall, as the growing point may still be underground. Thus, in a spring that promises to be warm and dry, it is possible to risk an early planting as much as 2-3 weeks before the last frost date. Having some transplant plugs for a back-up helps reduce the risk level.
• Common phenology signs for the season being advanced enough to sow corn are that white oak leaves are the size of squirrels’ ears and that ragweed is germinating.
• Sow shallowly 6” (15 cm) apart, in rows you’ll be able to walk between. 30”-36” (76-92 cm) works well. Close the furrows and tamp down the rows with the back of a hoe or rake, or do the “soft shoe shuffle” with your feet. The goal is to get good contact between the seed and the soil.
• Water as needed.
• Emergence takes 22 days at 50°F (10°C), 12 days at 59°F (15°C), 7 days at 68°F (20°C), and 4 days at 77°F (25°C).