?Lbs. of corn to plant to feed a family of 4 for 1 year???

I apologize if this question has been asked before, but does anyone happen to know approximately how many pounds of corn seed one needs to plant to feed a family of 4 for 1 year? We eat corn just about every day of the week and I would like to can our own corn this year.

I will be buying my seed corn this week and I'm not sure how much to buy, so I really appreciate your help if you have a "formula".

Can't wait for spring!
Thanks!
Glenda

Glenda, Looked it up in an old Kilgore's catalogue I have and it says for a family of 4 you need to make 2 plantings of 200 feet using 1/4 lb. of seed. It's not real clear but I assume the amount of seed is for each planting.

Johnnys Seed calculator also has a table online but it only tells how much seed needed for row length.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/SeedCalculator.aspx

There are too many variables how how much to feed a certain number of people.
Next year, you should have a better idea and be able to tell us how much is needed.

Just be sure to plant an extra row for the critters... lol

flsusie and podster, thanks so much! I will let you all know how it goes, and I'll make sure to keep the critters in mind!! lol ;) Yesterday, I sat down and tried to think about how many ears of corn (not cans of corn) I think our family eats in a week. After doing the math... ears per week x 52 weeks in a year.... and then finding out how many seeds are in a pound..... figuring for critter loss, seeds that don't germinate, etc., I'm getting close to knowing how much to buy. I'll let you know how much I end up buying and how much land I plant. :) Between our married daughters, grandbabies, and my father, husband, and me, we have 13 people in our family. .....This should be a REAL learning experience! ...I love a challenge.;)

Glenda- Have you ever canned corn before? I plant sweet corn and I have tried many different ways of freezing it, for use in the year, but none that I liked at all! do you have to have a pressure canner?

Hillabeans, yes, I have a pressure canner, but I’ve only been canning for 2 years – green beans, homemade apple sauce, and tomatoes are all I have experience with. Canning corn will be new to me. :) ……I posted a question on the Canning forum asking whether folks like raw pack or hot pack better when canning whole kernel corn, but no one has responded yet. After reading the directions, raw pack appears to be the fastest and easiest, but I don't know how each process affects the tastes, texture, etc., of the corn. Guess I'll find out if I like it. My family eats a LOT of corn, it's a main dish at every meal and with corn getting closer to $1 a can, if I can grow it and can it, it will be a huge savings! ......The new taste may just be something we'll have to get use. ......At times like these, I can hear my mom saying, "If you get hungry enough, you'll eat it." ;) lol
Glenda

I keep it simple- I cut corn off the cob and freeze it in vacuum bags- no blanching or work-and it keeps perfectly. I do some uncooked, and some that is cooked. It stays sweet and fresh for the whole season.

Glenda, that's a whole lot of corn! I'm not an expert, but a neighbor plants corn and said blocks of corn are better than rows. They freeze theirs, some cut off the cob and others blanched on the cob first. I've had some, it is very close to fresh.

Hmmmm freezing corn..... Well, because it IS a lot of corn, I had hoped to can it rather than freeze it so that I could use our big freezer for meat. Corn that I canned could be put up on the shelves down stairs and not take up freezer space.

Cathy4, do you have any idea what the size is of your neighbor's blocks? I will be picking my corn by hand.

Glenda, I'm not positive, but I think he does 4x4, 4 short rows of 4 stalks for a total of 16, and the stalks look to be about 10 inches apart. He says the ears get fertilized better. He also shakes his stalks, talk about funny to watch, but he swears that helps the ears fill out better. For as much as you need you would obviously have to have more. I think the idea is to avoid one long row. Hope this helps, home grown corn is almost as good as home grown tomatoes.

Corn is pollinated by the wind which means that it need other corn near it to be pollinated. The recommendation is for the corn to be at least 4 rows wide.

It's been years since I canned corn but if I remember correctly we raw packed it, mostly because it was less work. Corn is slow to can because it is dense. It will take some where arou nd 2 1/2 hours to run a load of corn. You have to load the canner, run it up to temperature, keep it there for close to 1 1/2 hours for quarts then let it cool and take the jars out. If you are planning on doing 200 quarts of corn that's about 30 loads! That's 75 hours of canning at 2.5 hours per load which I think is optimistic. I've done marathon canning sessions when I was a teenager. Mostly mom would prepare the jars and I'd run the canner. My mother didn't like being near te canner because she was afraid it might blow up.

If I was dealing with a mass of corn all at once I think I would do both. I'd freeze a bunch just to preserve it. Then, as I got time and needed the space, I'd can some of the frozen corn. I'm not sure how the quality would be, but it almost has to be better than what you get in a can in the store and most certainly better than canning corn that's been off the plant for a couple of days. Actually I could process a bunch of veggies if I could prepare them fast enough and I could get enough burner space as I own 4 canner's or is that 5

Cathy, that's a BIG help! I know a lady that takes a paint brush and transfers the pollen to the silk by hand! ;) .....I think I'll just let the wind handle that. lol

Doug, thank you for sharing your canning experience with me; it is a huge help also. Boy, this will be a huge project. It makes me stand in amazement at the fact that my grandmothers put up ALL their families' food for the whole year, and without having pressure canners!!!! Between canning, preserving their meat with curing salt, stocking their root cellars --- plus taking care of a family and farm, making their clothes and blankets, and cooking ALL their meals, it's a wonder they lived as long as they did. OH, and they had 10-15 children too! .....Boy, do we have it easy. We don't know what a "hard life" really is. We are truly blessed.

Doug....You did give me an idea though....one I should have thought of...... I will buy another pressure canner to cut my canning time in half. I think I can get two of them on my stove. .....I think it's time I start lobbying for a commercial stove too. I need more burners!!! :-D

You've gotten me thinking about some of the canning things I did growing up. One of the marathon sessions was a result of some green beans that we acquired. There was a bean field in town that was harvested mechanically. This of course left a lot of beans behind and a bunch of us were allowed to pick whatever was left over. We ended up canning them because we didn't have a freezer. I must have been 15 at the time because I dislocated my knee when I was 14 and I don't think it was that fall.

As far as stoves I've canned on electric, gas, wood, coal, and an open fire.

Have you considered building some kind of canning kitchen, something somewhat isolated from the house so it doesn't heat it up.


This message was edited Mar 2, 2011 8:12 PM

Glenda, I think our grandmothers also knew how to delegate!

Glenda_Michigan, corn was really the only veg I could get my boys to eat while they were growing up. One would also eat green beans and the other would eat peas. Since I garden they got exposed to all sorts of other veg, but corn was the deal. They particularly liked "shoe peg" corn so that is how I got started with growing Country Gentleman. I just cut it off the cob and freeze it and it freezes and keeps really well. I usually grow in blocks of six foot by eight foot, but that is because my beds were six foot wide and were thirty-two feet long. I fit three blocks in seperated by two weeks plantings if that makes sence. I also sunk T-posts about every three-four feet around the perimeter and ran string or wire (one I ran bungy cords) through each block to form a support grid. This method transpired after a strong wind storm blew over some almost ripe corn and ruined it =(. I saw this method used on a TV show and tried it. I does work, but it is a lot of work for a really big patch of sweet corn.

I'm really excited to try some new varieties now that I have more room. Like you, it is just DH and me now. Our #2 son has come back home so we will be feeding him, too. We've decided to devote more time and space to the garden and see how much grocery money we can save that way. I'm giving myself a five year window to learn as much as I can and then get better at producing what we need from the garden. I think I may need an extra freezer....

Sallyg, I'll give you a big "Amen!" One person could not have done everything that needed doing.....despite waking up at 4:30am!! ....I remember sleeping in bed at my Grannies' homes and waking to the smell of bacon cooking at 5am!

.....My Papaws worked together in the coal mines, and Grannies were very close friends who lived near each other in the heart of Appalachia. Going to the big town was a day's [ride] when my Dad was young, which made it a rare trip. Both families were dependent on the land and their own skills. Life was hard but my Dad speaks of his childhood with great fondness. Their lives were exactly like "Little House on the Prairie", with electric lights and stoves, indoor plumbing and bathrooms, radio and television coming later in life. A large family was the norm and provided "helpers" who you [could] delegate work to. It took "a family" to get it all done........life was good...and simple....., and my Dad says he wouldn't change a thing. Like most on here, I have a heritage that I am proud of. I come from a tough, hardy, and self-reliant stock. ;) I count it a blessing! .....I just wish my Grannies were still here to teach me all they knew about living off the land. ((sigh))

I do have one of my Granny M's cookbooks. To can her green beans (without a pressure canner), she boiled each batch for over 3 hours! Can you imagine how long it took her to put up enough food to feed her family for a whole year!?! I bet she canned food [every day] once the crops started coming in!!

terri-emory, it sounds like we're in the same boat!! lol I can't wait to compare notes! ;)

I'm planning on picking my corn seed up today. :)

Glenda, I suggest you freeze at least a bit of the corn to compare the eating qualities with canning.

Good idea, Indy! I'll do that! :-)

fresh corn, just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

You can almost taste it, can't you!? :)

Anyone happen to know if white corn discolors when canning? We are probably going with silver queen. I want to can and freeze some, but know it won't get eaten if it's an off color.

Glenda

square foot gardening recomends 4 plants per square foot for a block thats 4'x4'. So that's 16x4 or 64 plants altogeter. I did it this way one year and it really does work. He suggests making additional plantings every 2 weeks.

cocoa_lulu, I've grown Country Gentleman (see above) which is white. I've frozen it for some years and not noticed an off color. I don't know about Silver Queen, but it is sooooo popular. I bet someone here knows. Isn't it lovely to be talking about planting corn in the next few weeks? Just need warmer nights and well be in like Flynn!

Thanks yehudith, that makes sense! Now to just do the math..... I'll be ready to go by the time it's planting season here in Michigan! ;)

Thanks Terri, not being able to can white may be a myth. I have no idea where I heard that, thought better to check then waste my efforts.lol I'm ready for a growing season!

I haven't canned, only frozen. The color holds for freezing, though. I think there is a canning forum, did you ask there?

Ah ha, no, I keep forgetting there are so many forums here! Thanks.

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply; my DH was asked to be the general contractor for the building of our new church building, which means I was promoted to being his secretary and go-fer! ;) lol A job I'm happy to help with, but it has kept me off the computer....

Hopefully I'm not repeating myself, but I ended up [ buying ] Bodacious and 274A, and will stagger out their planting times. …..A close friend of ours, Rick, is a large-scale farmer in our area, farming literally thousands of acres, and when I told him how much corn I want to plant this year, he laughed and said, "Glenda, that's a LOT of work, weeding, etc. Wouldn't it just be easier if while our big rigs are planting corn, I just plant a several rows FOR you and called them "Glenda's corn"!? We'd spray it for you and everything. You'll end up with 'worm-less corn' that way!" He's so sweet. I told him, "But Rick, that won't teach me anything if you do it for me. I really do appreciate your offer but I want to learn HOW to grow my own food on a larger scale than what I have in the past." He kindly explained to me what a large undertaking it would be, which was very helpful and gave me more of an idea of what I'm in for. ....Rick and my DH just laughed and looked at me like I had a 3rd eyeball in the middle of my forehead. LOL ;) I may take him up on his offer to turn over and disc my planting area though. ;) ....I may be adventurous but I'm not stupid. heehee

There's a lot to be said for doing it yourself. I'd definitely take him up on his offer to prepare your ground it will save you a lot of work. The only reason I'm going to work my own ground is that I want to get some stuff in early and the guy that tilled my garden last year had his own idea about when it should be done and it was a lot later than I wanted it to be.

LOL, Glenda! I am soooooo familiar with my DH looking at me as if I have a 3rd eyeball. But then he eats what I cook and decides I wasn't so crazy after all.

I pass a small farm on my way to work every morning and evening. I looks as if they bought the land across the street/hwy and are cultivating both. They have had several hoop houses set up all winter. Yesterday I almost drove into the ditch as I looked in passing and thought I saw them out planting individual sweet corn plants--pre-started in maybe the peat plugs--all by hand out into these long rows. I thought I must have been seen things and, since I had drivers behind me, I kept going. But I was determined to drive verrrry slowly past this place this morning. And sure enough, that is what they are doing. They must have been growing starts in their hoop houses. I don't see any indication of T-tapes or an other sort of irrigation. We haven't had rain here in over six weeks and the papers are starting to talk of severe drought and burn bans. I will be watching them and I do wish them the best of luck. But what are they thinking!?! Maybe they can run t-tapes or soakers in after they plant but I've always used the hoses as planting guides and they is easiers. They must have a lot of crows or something! Anyway, a lot more work than you and I with our sweet corn patches are thinking of for sure! It seems a lot of work just to get those starts going, not to metion the expense. Maybe this is a new theory in sweet corn production?

Mention that to your DH and see what he says!