sowing corn

Tree Dude · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Posts: 264 Location: Saginaw,TX

How do you prepare the soil for corn? I do not have a farm. I was just thinking to sow just one corn in my yard for practice and see what will happen. How do you sow the corn? By the way, I already have soil for gardening. I have already put the grass out and put soil in the "hole." Is there anything I must do? now my family just bought some blackberries. Do the blackberries need to stay away from the corn is it will not choke out the corn? I just want to sow sweet corn.Thank you for any advice.

Tree Dude

Tricky Grama · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:04 am Post subject: corn

Someone who knows will surely answer but I DO know from having a huge garden when I was a kid (yes, there was corn back then) that you must plant more than 1 row so there will be pollination. I guess it is better to have a 'group' of corn than 1 row. I have blackberries in my yard now in Plano & they sort of got into the tomato plants so I would assume they would love climbing on corn.
Patty

CaptainCompostAL · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 876 Location: Irondale,Alabama

I grow all my sweet corn in long wide, no-till beds. I prepare the beds in the winter with lots of undone compost, and thick legume cover crops like crimson clover, Australian winter peas, and hairy vetch. I also mix in some thick mustard and radishes too for extra organic matter.

I green manure my beds by close mowing and smothering. I use lots of dry molasses and aerobic compost teas on the beds too for extra microbial action and extra nitrogen for the corn.

I always companion my corn in the "3 sisters" technique: Corn family + Beans/Peas family + Squash/Cucumber/Melons famiy. This gives me the maximum harvest per area of garden beds.

I feed my corn just lots of weekly (or sometimes twice a week), strong high nitrogen, sugary aerobic compost tea recipes. I do this in a foliar/soil drench application method using just cups or bottles and a 5 gallon bucket to carry the liquid to the beds.