Quick Reference
When to Start |
Direct seed in late May/early June when forecast shows no danger of temps dropping below 45 degrees.
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Crop Rotation |
Try to follow a member of the pea or bean family.
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How To Plant |
Plant seeds 1" deep in rows spaced 12" apart. Minimum of 4 rows.
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Spacing and Support |
Start seeds 3" apart. Once they are about 1' tall, pull out the weakest plants leaving a 1' space between them. Normally no support is needed, but if necessary plants could be staked or held in by a fence or rope/twine
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When to Harvest |
Sweet corn: When husk feels full and silk coming out of the top of the ear has turned brown.
Popcorn: When the corn stalk has died and dried out |
Storage |
Sweet corn: Remove the kernels and freeze in Ziploc bags
Popcorn: Mason jars after it is completely dried out |
We have grown sweet corn on and off with decent success, but popcorn has really become the star of our garden. We love it so much that in 2018 we dug out an entire new garden just for popcorn. First of all it just looks cool as it starts to tower over you, and when strategically placed can provide a nice privacy wall for the rest of your garden. Popcorn is definitely not expensive at the grocery store, but there is really something special about making your own that you grew yourself, free of any pesticides or preservatives. It's also a relatively maintenance free plant that's ideal for the gardener who plans to be away a lot on summer vacations. After you plant the seeds and thin out the young plants, it's pretty much just sit back and watch them grow until the fall.
When To Start
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Direct seed in the garden well after fear of frost has passed. Corn needs some serious heat to get going so this should be the last thing you plant. Seeds will not germinate until the soil temperature reaches 60-80 degrees, and optimal growing temperature is 65-75 degrees.
Personally we haven't quite gotten that precise where we are measuring soil temps before planting. Generally speaking we plant our corn the first week of June. |
Crop Rotation
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Corn does really well when it follows members of the pea and bean family. This is because beans and peas add nitrogen to the soil as they grow, something corn desperately needs to grow itself. If that's not an option, make sure to amend the soil with plenty of compost and an organic fertilizer.
Click here to read about crop rotation and why it is so important It's important to not only avoid planting the same crop in the same spot 2 years in a row, but you also have to avoid plants in the same family as they typically draw on the same nutrients and have issues with the same pests. Click here to learn more about plant families and find a chart showing which ones are related. |
How to Plant
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Direct sow seeds right into the garden when the final frost of the spring has passed and there is no danger of the temperature dropping below 45 degrees. Seeds should be planted fairly deep, about 1" below the surface. It works best to have a long tape measure so you can keep your rows straight and consistently plant the seeds every 3"
If you're planning to plant more than 1 variety of corn you'll have to separate them by 100 feet or so, otherwise they will cross-pollinate. We learned this in 2018 when in our new "corn field" we tried a blue corn that is ground into flour alongside our popcorn. The 2 types stayed mostly true to form, but we did end up with some blue popcorn kernels and some weird mutated blueish/yellowish things that were not popcorn or edible. We did actually get some really cool ones that we used to make one of those fancy Thanksgiving wreaths with so it worked out, but just a heads up on that. (P.S. We left all the blue corn in a basket too long and it turned to mold before we had a chance to do anything with it. ) |
Spacing and Support
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Plant seeds every 3" in rows spaced 1 foot apart. To ensure proper pollination you really should have at least 4 rows to form a block of corn.
Once plants are about a foot tall remove the weakest ones leaving about 1' between each plant. This can be a bit tricky but it doesn't have to be exact. Some will end up 9" apart, others 15", but just do the best you can. We usually end up transplanting about 5-10 plants that needed to be thinned out because they were too close and use those to fill a hole somewhere. Corn typically does not need to be supported, but it does have very shallow roots and can easily be blown over by strong winds when it is young. We usually get away with just piling up the dirt around it when this happens to make sure it grows up straight on it's own. If you are in a really windy area, you may need to surround the corn with a fence or some kind of system of stakes and ropes to hold it all upright. |
Harvesting
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Sweet corn is definitely the trickier of the 2 types to know exactly when it is ready. It's a bit of a trial and error thing, but generally speaking sweet corn is ready to be picked when the husk feels full and the strands of silk at the top have turned brown. Supposedly corn tastes sweetest if you harvest it early in the morning right when the sun rises, maybe someone out there can try that theory and let us know if it works.
Popcorn is a lot simpler in that you basically just wait until the entire corn stalk has died and turned brown. At this point the ears are not going to grow any larger and the kernels have begun drying out on the cob. Pick all of the ears at once and toss all the husks into the compost pile. Store the ears of corn in a cool,dry, rodent free place for processing later. |
What to do with way too many of them
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Sweet corn: In the event you somehow end up with way too much sweet corn and need to do something with it, you can just cut the kernels off with a knife and freeze them in Ziploc bags. Since most corn stalks only produce 1-3 ears of corn, it's unlikely you'll find yourself in this spot and if you do you're probably better off sharing the surplus with someone who would appreciate it.
Popcorn is one of the few things you actually want too much of. It stores really well and you really can never have too much popcorn, especially a kind you grew yourself. Here's how we process and store it: 1) After we harvest the corn and remove all the husks, we put the ears into wicker baskets and basically use them as decorations around the house for the fall harvest/Thanksgiving season. 2) Once it's time to put up the Christmas decorations the popcorn is ready to be processed. All you do is hold the ear of corn over a bowl and twist with both hands in opposite directions to make the kernels fall off and into the bowl. See for yourself in the video below. Some will come right off like nothing, others will take a little more muscle. You'll definitely need to wear some heavy duty rubber gloves or something similar, unless you like the feeling of having a continuous rope burn, then be all means go barehanded. 3) Dump the kernels into mason jars, screw on the lid, and store them in a cabinet or any other dry spot. It will stay good for years and makes a great (cheap) Christmas gift. |