I wrote about success with planting sweet corn in May. here are tips for continuing success as your corn grows!
Caring for the Sweet Corn Crop
Generally, corn needs cultivating (hoeing and weeding) at least twice, once two weeks after sowing, and once at four weeks. Even better are four cultivations: one at 7 days, a second at 14, a third around 21 days (when the plants are 6-12” (15-30cm) tall) and finally one around 35 days when they are 18-20” (45-50cm) high. We use a walk-behind tiller, and follow up with hoeing and thinning. A wheel hoe can be a useful tool. After about 30 days, corn plants get too big to get machinery between the rows.
Another good resource is ATTRA Sweet Corn: Organic Production.
At tight spacing, adequate irrigation becomes more important. Never allow soil in corn plantings to dry out. More than 1” (2.5cm) per week may be needed for maximum productivity, although corn is more drought tolerant than some crops. The most important times for watering are silking (when the silks first become visible outside the husks) and ear-filling.
There used to be a belief that it helped production to remove the suckers that came from the base of the plant. This idea has been tested, and that practice has been found to damage plants and possibly even reduce yields. (Reports from Clemson in 2002 and Colorado State in 2004).
Flame-weeding can be used after planting, pre-emergence, or, with care, after the crop is 2” (5cm) tall, using a directed flame. Consult ATTRA Flame Weeding for Vegetable Crops
Undersowing Sweet Corn
No-till planting into strips tilled in a white clover living mulch sounds good but has been found tricky, especially during the grower’s learning curve. Jeanine Davis addresses this in NCSU’s Organic Sweet Corn Production. The clover may out-compete the corn, becoming invasive and hard to get rid of. Soil temperatures will be lower (a disadvantage in spring) and slugs and rodents may abound.
More successful is sowing a cover crop into the corn at the last cultivation, 28-35 days after emergence. We undersow with soybeans (oats and soybeans for our last planting). Although they don’t supply the highest amount of nitrogen, compared to other legumes, they are cheap, quick, somewhat shade tolerant and can withstand the foot traffic during harvesting. Other growers sow forage brassicas. Research has shown that this does not depress corn yields. The brassicas can be harvested for forage after the sweet corn harvest is finished. Undersowing with white clover is also possible.
Succession Planting of Sweet Corn
In order to have a continuous supply of sweet corn all summer, a bit of planning and record-keeping is called for so that each year’s plan can be fine-tuned. The easy and approximate method of getting a good supply is to sow more corn when the previous sowing has 3-4 leaves, or is 1-2” (2.5-5cm) tall. That will be about every two weeks. For a more even supply, sow several different varieties, with differing days to maturity, on the same date. We sow Bodacious (77 days), Kandy Korn (89 days) and Silver Queen (96 days) on the same day, and get over two weeks of harvests.
For fine-tuning for the most even supply, nothing beats real information about what happened, written at the time it happened. We have a Planting Schedule on a clipboard in the shed, and we write down actual sowing dates (next to the planned sowing date), and harvest start and finish dates. Having graphs of sowing and harvest dates for each crop has been very useful for planning effective planting dates. Use the Succession Planting method to calculate best planting dates and intervals for a continuous supply. We make six plantings: 4/26, 5/19, 6/6, 6/24, 7/7 and 7/16, to provide fresh eating every two weeks. The planting intervals are 23, 18, 18, 13, and 9 days. Because we plant three varieties, new corn comes in three times during each two weeks.
To calculate the last worthwhile sowing date, add the number of days to maturity and the length of the harvest window (7-14 days), and subtract this number from your average first frost date. For our 10/14 frost date, using an 80 day corn as an example, 80+7=87 days, brings us back to July 19 for our final sowing date. In practice, because corn matures faster in summer than in spring, this calculation gives you a little wiggle room in case the first frost is earlier than average. You could add a little more wiggle-room to be more sure. We make our last sowing on July 16.
Fast-Maturing Sweet Corn Varieties
Early Maturing Sh2 Varieties: The Supersweet corn varieties are where most of the attention goes these days, and bicolor is preferred. In order of maturity (speediness in ripening): Catalyst XR (bicolor, 66days); Sweetness synergistic (bicolor, 68d); Kickoff XR (bicolor, 69d); Temptress synergistic (bicolor, 70d); Xtra-Tender 2171 (bicolor, 71 d); Nicole (white, 72d); Xtra-tender 20173 (bicolor, 73d); Signature XR (bicolor, 73d); Anthem XR (bicolor, 74d); Natural Sweet Organic (bicolor, 74d); Xtra-tender 3473 (white, 75d); SS2742 (Bicolor, 75d)
Early Maturing SU Varieties: Among yellow SU cultivars, Earlivee is the earliest to mature, at 58 days, and Seneca Horizon matures in 65 days. Sugar Pearl at 73d is the earliest white cultivar to mature. Quickie, at 64 days, Double Standard (OP, 73d) and Butter and Sugar at 73 d, are the earliest bicolor cultivars to mature.
Early Maturing SE Varieties: Among yellow SE varieties, Precocious and Spring Treat mature earliest, at 66 and 67 days, respectively. Bodacious (yellow, 75d) is well worth the wait! Of white varieties, Spring Snow, at 65 days, is the earliest to mature. There are no bicolor SE varieties.
Early maturing SE+ varieties: Sugar Buns (yellow, 70 days); Trinity (bicolor, 68d)
Remember, if you decide to grow several kinds, not to mix sh2 kinds with anything else, or everything will taste starchy.
Sweet Corn Season Extension
Transplanting can provide an earlier harvest, as already mentioned. Clear plastic mulch is sometimes used to increase soil temperature and germination rate, and to conserve moisture, producing earlier maturing corn. The plastic is spread over the seeded beds and slit when the seedlings emerge. It can be cut and removed 30 days after emergence. Weed-free seed beds are needed for this method to work organically, and plastics disposal is an issue. Rowcover is another way to warm soils (and keep birds off).
Pests and Diseases of Sweet Corn
Crows and other birds can be troublesome, removing the seed before it even grows. We leave the row-marking ropes in place (when hand sowing), or put some sticks and string in after machine sowing. Bird-scaring flash-tape may be even more effective. Rowcover would also work.
Some say interplanting corn with big vining squashes deters raccoons and other critters, but I think it deters crew too!
There are several caterpillar pests. An integrated organic approach to keeping pest numbers below economically damaging levels includes crop rotations, tillage, choosing resistant or tolerant varieties, encouraging beneficial insects, and ensuring adequate fertility and water. The next step is to scout for pests regularly, and take action as required.
Corn Ear Worm (CEW) is the most common pest. There may be six generations a year in the South. These caterpillars can bite – it’s just a nip, but can be a shock! A first line of defense is to choose varieties with tighter husks, which are harder for the worms to get into (Bodacious, Tuxedo, Silver Queen). Natural predators can be encouraged by planting alyssum or other small, open-flowered plants. You could buy Trichogramma wasps. The Zea-later was a tool developed for applying vegetable oil in the tip of each ear, mixed with Bt, 2-3 days past the full-brush stage of silking. Unfortunately the treatment caused pollination problems and so it has fallen out of use. If pest numbers are not too high, you can simply cut or snap the ends off the ears.
European Corn Borer (ECB) drills through the whorl of leaves of the young plants, leaving a pattern of large holes as the plant develops. Bt and Spinosad will kill these, as will Trichogramma wasps. To reduce damage in future years, be sure to mow and disk old corn stalks into the soil at the first opportunity. Organically farmed soils have less of a problem with ECB.
Fall Army Worms (FAW) are also killed by Bt and Spinosad. These three pests (CEW, ECB, FAW) can be monitored in a single program, starting when the corn plants are at the whorl stage. At that point, scout for FAW, and treat if more than 15% of your plants are infested. At the pre-tassel and tassel stage scout for ECB and FAW. If infestation exceeds 15%, make a foliar spray with Bt or Spinosad. Check again in a week and repeat if needed. Then at the early silk stage, look for CEW and if needed, inject oil in the tips. If you also see ECB moths, apply Bt or Spinosad.
Cutworm can be a problem following sod, or if there are adjacent grassy areas. Bait them with bran, cornmeal or hardwood sawdust mixed with molasses and water – these baits swell inside the pests and kill them.
Corn Rootworms are best controlled by rigorous rotations.
For a more complete description of corn insect pests, see the 2004 Organic Insect Management in Sweet Corn by Ruth Hazzard & Pam Westgate. It includes good photos of the beasties. Cornell has a good Resource Guide for Organic Pest and Disease Management. Search under Crop Management Practices for Sweet Corn. Be aware of the updated info on the pollination issues with applying oil in the ear tips, since these publications came out.
Corn Smut fungus (Ustilago maydis), known in Mexico as Huitlacoche, is edible at the stage when the galls are firm and tender. The flavor is sweetish. Silver Queen is the variety “best” at producing this fungus, should you wish to grow it. We carefully harvest the infected ears (or pieces of stem) into a special Smut Bucket, trying not to scatter the spores. Because none of us like this delicacy, we take it to the compost pile.
Sweet Corn Harvest
Harvest corn before daybreak for best flavor, because the sugars manufactured in the plant the day before become concentrated during the night. We’re not that dedicated. We harvest ours in the morning, and hurry it to the walk-in cooler.
Harvest may start 18-24 days after half the ear silks show, if the weather has been reasonably warm. Judging corn’s ripeness is a skill, based on information from many of the senses. The first sign we look for is brown dead silks. If the ear has passed that test, we investigate further. All ears should look and feel plump and rounded to the tip. Each variety is a little different, so close attention is needed. Some varieties exhibit “flagging” of the ear, meaning it leans away from the stalk as it matures and gets heavier. New crew can test for ripeness by opening the side of the husk with thumb nails, and puncturing a kernel: the kernels should look filled-out and squarish, not round and pearly; the juice should be milky, not watery or doughy. The advantage of opening the side of the husks is that it is possible to close the gap if the ear is not ripe, without risk of collecting dew or rainfall. If the ear is ripe, we bend it downwards, give it a quarter-turn twist, and then pull up away from the plant.
We harvest every other day, which balances getting the amount we need with not spending more time than needed picking. Such a schedule can work well for CSA farms. Other growers could well need to harvest every day, if daily fresh corn is what your market needs. Leaving a three-day gap risks poor quality starchy ears and a lower total yield.
Take steps to keep the crop cool while harvesting. Never leave buckets of corn out in the sun. Even at room temperature, harvested OP ears lose half their sweetness in 24 hours.
After harvest, cool the corn quickly. Hydrocool if you have a large operation: drench or immerse the crop in near-freezing water. Otherwise, simply refrigerate and keep the corn cool until it reaches the consumer.
Some of this information comes from my book, Sustainable Market Farming.
