Sweet Corn as a fall crop...

My sweet corn came in fairly well this year even with the drought, but I didn't know about Corn earworms and so didn't treat them and they got into most of the crop. We enjoyed several dozen, but most of it I had planned to sell at the farmers market and couldn't because of the worm damage.

I ended up feeding a lot to my chickens but then it started to rot the field when we got some rain so I tilled it under to keep the weeds down. Well, about a week later I had corn sprouts everywhere. Not sure what to do, I went through and thinned them as best I could (each ear grew like 30 sprouts). So now I have a pretty decent stand of corn 6-10" tall and we have 3 months until first frost for them to grow. So I thought, great a second crop.

But then the nagging doubts began since I'm so new to this. I keep thinking there's a reason people don't plant fall sweet corn... Does it have a sunlight requirement or anything that will keep it from producing maybe?

Relax ; People do plant fall corn in north Georgia. Down here, most of the time it is just too hot and dry for it to get going. Bug problems like ear worms, sap beetles and budworms seem to multiply 10 fold so we rarely bother. But you should be ok, If you are willing to meet your insect problem with a full arsenal.

For a minute there, I thought you were growing that corn on a really steep hillside! :D I've never grown corn. You have to have a certain minimum of rows for it to do well, right? We don't have much place to try it where we are, so I think we'll have to keep buying fresh sweet corn!

Thanks Farmerdill!
I feel better about it now. I'm not sure it's going to be worth it though, I was out there today and there were a ton of new sprouts again. I may till parts of it under again. The thinning is a lot of work.

Gardenwife, you just need enough so you'll get good pollination. You could plant a little 4'x4' patch if you wanted. Makes the raccoons and crows love you!

I turned the picture around for you.

Jeff

Farmer -- What kind of a spray would you suggest to keep any worms away from my corn. I'm not organic.

Gardenwife -- I'm growing sixteen stalks of corn in an EB and they are doing fine. There are eight stalks on each side. Corn really does not take up much space?

This message was edited Aug 3, 2007 2:43 PM

I did 4 rows of 4 plants each, planted every two weeks, and the corn has been great.

I did try to help the fertilization along, tho.

Tplant,

Farmerdill will probably give you a better answer, but the two things I was planning to do based on what I'd read here on DG was to spray BT(k) when the silks emerge and then to apply a few drops of mineral oil to the silks as they start to brown. Both are organic methods.

Jeff

Plant, I use Sevin, but Bt and the mineral oil treatment work pretty well. I plant about 3 lbs of seed so I am too lazy to use oil on that large a plot. Bt (spray) works but not as well as Sevin.
edited to add:

I just remembered that you are an advocate of Ortho B' Bgone. That is a more broad spectrum insecticide than Sevin and will work on corn earworms.

This message was edited Aug 3, 2007 6:03 PM

Good info - thanks.