Sweet corn out of the garden

October 21 and we had sweet corn out of the garden here in
s.w.Pa. i always plant a bit of sweet corn around July 4th. cold
Sept nights turn the starch to sugar . This was planted maybe
July 7 or 8. No frost yet this year, only a couple days of corn
left.

I planted one row of sweet corn in the garden this year, grew it organically. When it came time to harvest, I put it in the freezer, husk and all. It will last that way until the Holidays.

Out of curiosity, how do you get ONE row of corn to grow, let alone pollinate and produce anything?

It's been my experience that even 4 rows of corn grow poorly no matter how much fertilizer you put down and how much you cultivate. Corn doesn't reach its full growth potential until about the 6th row into a field.

We've been planting 4, 75' rows of sweet corn in
our garden for several years and have had no
problems getting it to pollinate and produce.

My dad always did 4 or 5 seeds to a "hill", run in one row. plenty of ears resulted!

The last 2 years I planted a 50 x 70 patch of sweet corn, did not fuss with it too much, this years reflected that. I'm going to keep at it, I did get some to enjoy though. I've got access to another really nice patch of soil for next season, neighbor lady does not mind, less grass to cut, might be more than I really need, but the soil is nice, was a garden for easily 30-40 years, I plowed/disc'd and planted it back to grass 10 years ago mid September '04.

The funny thing is that this was a late planting, end of June, but 60 something to 90 day something, 3 varieties, planted at the same time, to span the growing season. I've never tried staggering the same kind of corn, figured why not a few rows of different maturity corn. Last year the early corn did well and was really enjoyable for 2 weeks or so, the silver queen never really made it, that side of the patch is lot of clay and rock. Burpee seed is what I have been using.

So condensing my thoughts in an attempt to keep the length of this post down LOL, fast forward to this years and most was a failure, but at the ends and one side at the edge, in the worst soil, (slowly improving that) I had been drying and collecting my grass cuttings near the patch for mulch, Next to one small pile is 2 large green healthy stalks of silver queen, with full ears, I think there were 2 ears on each, have to check, might have wanted to put 3 out. Pollination was achieved, just a few lonely stalks, I tried one ear, weeks back, was good. Still standing and green at this time. I suppose if the weather cooperates, you can get a later harvest. Grass clippings dried like hay, then collected with the lawn sweeper, piled near the plants, must have leached out some good nutrients, was green when collected, thought it had to be fresh/wet and green. The previous year, planted 6-21-13, I had the same thing happen, 2-3 stalks were tall near a pile of grass clippings and of perfection, multiple ears while the rest of that side with the same type failed.

I have noticed in this patch it takes a lot of dry weather for corn to wilt and a good watering at the right time will last. Mulching will help immensely on the moisture. I'm sure I could make this patch really produce with effort, will see if I can get it done next year, way more than I can use, but easily sold if I wanted to.

You must be lucky!

Here in Washington County, my zucchini got frosted along with peppers. It's a shame, too. My zucchini still had nice blossoms and was making some nice size baseball bats right up until the end!

Peppers, in particular, need planted in patches instead of
rows. I'll plant six little rows of six peppers each - kind of a
square patch of peppers. My garden is kind of ugly, like a
bunch of patches.instead of pretty rows.