corn row spacing ???

• Emerald Farm

The next questions to be solved are what are you putting down for NPK and what PK and pH is the ground now? Corn has to be fed. Then too what is the previous crop and how did it yield. That affects what you have to apply for a good corn yield. And then another consideration is what time of year are you going to put down the N and in what form? There is extensive reports on using limited N applied timely at http://www.isafarmnet.com/

Now you still have to choose a corn variety, you need about 3 sacks (for 32,000 per acre) and there are only about 5000 numbers to choose from.

Gerald J.

• Iowa soybean association nitrogen studies

As to the spacing, How many rows is the combine? At two rows, 28 vs 30 (1 inch off center both rows) is nothing. If they show up with and 8 row head your screwed. The center two would be an inch, the next two would be 3", the next two 5", the two outside rows would be 7" off. You could get in at 3" (leaned over real good) but the outer rows (5&7) may or may not depending if the stalk breaks or not. Read, Added Loss, making your narrows rows mute.

Match planting to harvesting..... .

Quite simply if you are intending to harvest match the row width to the harvesting equipment.

ie if you intend to hire a neighbor to combine ask him or her what row width their set up for. If you intend to do it your self set for the equipment you have. Don't have it yet? Set for 38" most pickers are this width and the cornheads set for this width usually sell for their parts value.

jt

Can you find a 20 inch combine head in your area? Those are a little rare.

A horse is 42 inches wide, so that is how wide the first planters were. Fit the team down the rows.

Corn can give you max yield if each plant is equally spaced & gets as much sun & root room as possible. So perhaps planting each plant 6 inches from the next in all directions would be 'best' for max yield.

But no one's figured out a good way to harvest that yet.

So, from horse days, we've gone to 42, 40, 38, 36, 30, 22, 20, & 15 inch row spacing for corn.

MOST common was 38-40 inch (wide row) and now almost everyone is at 30 inch spacing narrow row). The last 5-10 years, you see some 15 inch rows, but that takes a special corn head.

In beet areas, planters are set to 20 or 22 inches, & you see some few corn heads that size.

In general, today, you will find 38 inch or 30 inch as the most common & easiest to find someone to harvest your corn. 38 inch pickers are pretty cheap, and corn heads are more common in 30 inch these days.

20 inch _might_ work with a 1-row corn picker.

I would figure out how to harvest the crop, before setting up the planter.

30 inch is going to be the most common in most areas.

--->Paul