Sweetcorn Production

I live in West Virginia and have access to several acres of cleared bottomland of sandy/loam texture. It currently has grass/weed stubble about 6" tall that I keep bush hogged. The land has never to my knowledge been used for Ag. purposes.

The equipment I have collected for this so far consists of a Farmall Super A w/plow, John Deere 60 w/cultivators, and a John Deere 1050 (compact diesel) to operate a 5' disc and John Deere ?256-257? 2-row corn planter.

My questions are:
1)when should I plow
2)when should I apply fert. & lime, and what is the ideal ph, ect... 3)what variety of corn
4)when should I plant
5)should I stagger planting to have a longer production, and if so how much
6)is irrigation something to consider
7)can you think of any additional equipment I need.
8)is spraying for bugs neccassary
9)is spraying for weeds neccassary, or should cultivating be sufficient.

Thanks for any help, Pat

2. If you can get on the fields now, check the ph as soon as possible and lime to get it up to 6-6.5. Corn is sensitive to ph, too high is no good also, I would not try to go up to 7.

3. Varieties- First decide what color is popular in your area. Some places you can only sell white corn, others bicolor or yellow. There are basically 3 sweet corn types available: Normal sweet hybrids that have been around for years, sugar enhanced types (SE), and supersweets. If you only have a few acres, I would stick to only one of these groups the first year; one reason, supersweets MUST be isolated from others, and SE's are better if you isolate. Personally, I would start with homozygous SE varieties, Lancelot, Delectable, Seneca Wardance are some bicolors, Silver King, Argent are white, maybe others can suggest some varieties. Make successive plantings; when one is up out of the ground, plant again. Each time plant 2 or 3 different maturities, like 65-70 days, 75 days, and 80+ day.

6. If you have a severe drought you will need irrigation or no corn. The critical time is when the ears are filling out.

7. I think you will need something to smooth the land a little behing the disk, a harrow of some kind, field cultivator, cultipacker or at least drag a heavy beam, pipe or log behind the disk.

8. Spraying for bugs will be necessary, especially later in the season. You will need a boom sprayer that is height adjustable and can go over the corn. If you are going to spray, plan out the spacing of your rows to leave a driveway for the sprayer. Some times you can stick another crop in the driveway, like beans, basil or something.

9. Spraying for weeds you might get by without, but I wouldn't try it. It is so easy and effective to plant and spray immediately with something like a mix of atrazine and lasso or Dual or whatever is used in your area. If it rains in a few days you will have very few weeds. You don't want to be cultivating or pulling weeds when you are busy with the next planting, spraying, picking etc.

10. Hope you dont't have a lot of trouble with critters, birds, deer, racoons etc.
Good luck.

www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/homegard/sweetcorn.htm

www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-50.html

One idea for teh early market is grow seedings in "float" (tobacco) trays and transplant. Gets you on the market 2-3 weeks early. Typically this is the most profitable time.

If you have more than an acre or so, here the ag coops (or fert dealers) will be happy to soil test & recommend & apply the fertilizer for you - whichever steps you want done. If this is a long-term plan, would be good to get off in the right foot on soil fertility.

Here they plant sweet corn as soon as they possibly can get in the field. If the first acre freezes off, small loss just replant - if it makes it, the earliest crop makes the most money, big payoff. Here waiting until spring to plow & waiting for last frost would mean no market for you - everyone else would have early corn & your markets for the season...)

Here they plant for a month or more, staggering the crop, every few days.

If you use livestock manure and only cultivate & no spray & live by 'city folks' you might be able to charge a premium for organic sweetcorn. (There are legal rules on labeling stuff 'organic' tho, you need to follow.)

However, planting into weedy grass ground is going to be a _LOT_ of weeds and a _LOT_ of insects for your sweet corn - doubt you would get a crop that first year without spraying. Also, corn on corn year ofter year adds to weeds & insect problems. Are you planning to rotate with a different crop in following years?

This is how things are done in Minnesota, don't know if _any_ of it applies to your location.

--->Paul