Between the worms, bacterial leaf streak and large amount of space required, why bother growing corn if this is what my harvest looks like? I had it growing densely (maybe 15-20 plants in a 6×3 bed) and when the silks were out I manually put pollen on them every day. The whole time it was growing I was fighting corn worms and army worms. Bacterial leaf streak emerged later on. This is my harvest. Why should I even bother planting it again next year? What did I do wrong?
by DankAssPotatos
47 Comments
You answered the question many new gardeners ask…
We don’t. Yours actually looks pretty good compared to some I’ve grown. One time my ears were all black inside. Corn is definitely not home gardener friendly. Unless you grow dozens of plants, it rarely comes out well in the home garden.
I have fantastic luck with corn. 40’x40’ area. Rows every 30” with plants thinned to about 14”. Good air flow but enough of a unit to deal with wind. Had to get creative with deer fence and an extra wire for raccoons.
Same boat. Not doing corn any more. Took too long, half filled cobs, needed constant water, grew 12 ears from 7 plants in 1/4 my garden space. The leftover stalk also Is a pain to compost because it stiffens like wood.
I only grow popcorn every few years. Even though I get decent sweet corn it’s not worth the space.
Spite! I am going to grow corn again out of spite just to know i can!
https://preview.redd.it/p9a2gtuiyrtf1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37882df4f90f33fe34494de6a898e91ddf3a4365
I’m not trying to flex, I’m just pointing out that it may not be hard to grow everywhere. This was our first year and all the ears looked good. Northern Colorado 5b, not a lot of insect/disease pressure. It was the best thing out of our garden for sure. We had a 25-foor double row.
I’ve never grown corn but I was really interested in trying and remember reading that they actually do well crowded together. I think it has to do something with ease of pollination. I also read that they need A LOT of nitrogen. I’m sure you need to use synthetic fertilizer to meet its nitrogen quota. But hey, this is just theoretical. I can’t speak from real experience growing it.
That’s more than I got this year from a similar planting!
Usually, my corn grows like nobody’s business, then I lose half of it due to earwigs eating the silks before they can be pollinated adequately, and just being gross in general, forcing me to husk what I do get outside, because there are earwigs in it.
This year, I got aggressive with the earwigs early on, and made a meaningful reduction in their population. And then my corn barely grew at all (I had to travel during my ideal planting window and my timing was a little off, but not *that* off, and I don’t know what went wrong, either).
Solidarity. This is also how I feel about carrots.
I did corn in a 4×4 bed. No hand pollinating, decent crop, but some of the tips didn’t have their kernels formed. The ear wigs loved them and totally freaked me out. Good experiment, but it wasn’t an every year crop for me.
You just keep doing it until you figure it out. That’s how I gardened all of my life. You just do it again and again, tweaking things here and there, until it turns out great. I’ve had bad crops of this or that until they become good crops of this for that. It’s a hands on learning experience year after year.
Plus, corn requires a lot of water.
Super simple answer to get you stellar corn… Growing at least a 5 x 5 ( or larger!) Round Circle or square. Corn needs to pollinate with itself. They need their little corn silks to touch. That’s all you need to do different
Corn is pollinated by wind. I have heard each tassle connects to a single kernel. This is from inadequate pollination. To successfully grow corn you need multiple rows. Most backyard gardeners don’t have the room.
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I see you’re in Florida so climate may be part of the problem. I grow corn and it usually does fine with minimal fuss. But we have a lot of space out in the midwest and corn is generally happy here. One thing that definitely helps with pollination is block planting. You don’t want one or two rows. You want it in a square. And as you noted, you need a lot of room. 3×6 probably sounds like a lot to most home gardeners but my corn bed this year was 8×15. If I had to go less than 6×6 I wouldn’t bother because of the likelihood of poor pollination. If you do decide to try again I’d look for a variety that is bred specifically for your conditions and maybe try for a winter planting to avoid some of the pests and disease. But as you’ve already correctly assessed, it’s a crop that tends to not be worth the space if you don’t have an acerage.
I grew corn for the first time this year. It looked just like op’s. I was super excited that I grew corn!! I just used mulch, no fertilizer, wasn’t eaten by squirrels and it tasted yummy.
I can’t wait to try again next year!
I stopped growing corn years ago. My reason was that it takes a lot of room for what it returns, and it needed a good bit of fertilizer.
Where did you get your seed from and what variety?
Corn varieties with a tight husk can largely keep pests, like corn worms, from getting inside and damaging the corn ears.
I’ve never heard of bacterial leaf streak, but, according to the internet, it’s primarily a seed born disease which means your corn seed was likely infected with it. When you clean up your corn stalks you will want to remove the entire stalk, roots and all, and dispose of them because it is possible for the bacteria to overwinter in crop residue in the ground. You should not plant your corn there next year in case it does overwinter, but, you should always rotate where you plant things anyways.
I’ve never hand pollinated corn, so I can’t help with that, but your corn is under-fertilized.
My typical corn patch size is about 12 feet by about 30 inches. I plant 3 rows and end up with about 45 spots. I’ve never gotten close to my theoretical max of 45 ears, but, on a good year I’ll get about a dozen good sized ears and maybe 20 half ears and a half dozen of quarter ears.
I grow corn because it is the best tasting sweet corn I can get and, even in an average harvest year, I can get enough that I’m tired of eating corn by the end. I also enjoy watching it grow and hearing the sound as the stalks sway in the wind. I also bundle the dried corn stalks into corn shocks and use them to decorate the outside of my house for Halloween.
The problem is you’re in Florida. I grew up in South Florida, and my mom tried like hell to grow corn for many years and was never successful, despite growing most of the veggies we ate. The humidity is the #1 problem here.
I tried once to grow corn but the goddam squirrels and rabbits wouldn’t let my seedlings be.
I must have gotten lucky. I planted 32 seeds and had 30 really nice cobs. No pests to speak of, and no weird looking or missing kernels. No hand fertilizing and really not much work. I did fertilize with 1/2 tsp nitrogen per plant.
Cabbage, Kale, etc though??? More hole than plant.
plant several short rows (plants 8-12 inches apart in 30-36 inch rows). planting 1-2 rows doesn’t allow for good pollination
Mine do that too. I’ve done the research and I believe I’m doing everything right. I’m done with corn. ( I tried three years in a row)
How to prevent rodents or birds from eating the kernels ?
What is this, a harvest for ANTS?
I wanted to add that this was year two pretty much failure in corn, but at least I have some fall decorations to go on my front porch with the stalks next to some pumpkins! Theres still a use for the plant if you fail.
I don’t plant corn. It needs a large amount of stocks close together over a fairly large area to get proper pollination. I don’t have enough space to devote to it, so- here I am- i don’t plant corn. It’s easier to go buy some from the farm down the street. Maybe not as cheap, but I can use the space to plant heavenly tomatoes that I can’t buy (and also be as delicious).
It looks like poor pollination. Corn is wind-pollinated so you need a lot of it planted in rows close together to get good ears.
It’s a pollination issue. Each hair on the ear is responsible for the development of 1 kernel
How can you suck at growing corn? That’s like the easiest thing to grow outside of pumpkins
I live in the great corn ocean (Midwest) and squirrels always got my corn so i tapped out, ha.
Looks like my grandpa tried to eat it. He had summer teeth (some ‘er in the mouth, some ‘er not)
Did you grow it in rows, or a cube? I have heard that because it is wind pollinated, it is better in a cube no smaller than 4×4
r/mightyharvest
No shit. That’s why I’m not growing corn next year.
New York here and my corn didn’t do well either this year
Mine turned out horrid. It takes up a lot of space and the outcome was 👎🏽. Never again. Sorry yours was too. 🍀
Corn is very challenging to grow. I finally got one good cob this year after 3 years of trying. I’m gonna try again next year.
W,
I’ve learned to plant a LOT of it. It’s wind pollinated from male tassles tops to the female silks on the immature ears. The more in the cluster the better chances it has.
https://preview.redd.it/xmevqm2ycstf1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f58bb900171e8b581045028d28a4572eb036c85f
I agree LOL
Not all crops are suitable for all environments. I can grow corn with relative ease, but if I want cantaloupe I’m looking at extensive work.
6×3 isn’t enough to get good pollination. IME 10×10 is the very minimum and even then the edge rows will be underpollinated. My best success with sweet corn was a 20×30 plot, not so densely planted but with the “3 sisters” of corn, winter squash, and beans interplanted.
I don’t grow it anymore though, I focus on growing stuff that is either hard to find at my local supermarket, or where freshness is important, or it’s just fun to grow
I have never once, in 20+ years, gotten even a single full ear of corn. I’ve decided that I will grow corn simply to have dried cornstalks for fall decor, and count it as a bonus if what I grow miraculously produces something edible along the way.
Sorry to see you had trouble. I’ve usually done very well planting 30 to 70 plants in a square or rectangle. I’m not sure why you didn’t get pollination.
Corn is probably the hardest crop to grow well until you learn everything about it, but when you do it it’s quite rewarding.
Idk, maybe try other varieties next time select for naturally resistant strains or strains that are pretreated for bacterial infections.
If you’re gonna grow corn, you kinda have to grow a lot of corn to make sure it gets fully pollinated.