Ground Preparation for Sweet Corn

I'll be seeding by hand with the help of a couple of guys.

I have a 2 gang disk arrow and a 2 bottom on wheels (older type). Will I need a spike or spring arrow and what is the sequence ie: disk then spike then spring? Also do I need to roll the seed down and do I need to worry about weed cultivation?

The big guys around here don't seem to worry about weeds and I'm sure they don't use a herbicide like Roundup. I note the shoots come up
pretty fast and there are no weeds in the rows. Maybe the corn smothers out the weeds since it's so high.

Thanks.

I trying to stay 100% organic or herbacide free, so I figure my best bet is to rig up a cultivator or some type of bar contraption that has a gang of hand hoe type steel plates. Then I can set these to about 2in depth just enough to slice off the weed seedlings. I'll plant my rows so I can get my tractor tire not so close I compact the corn roots.

My concern is for ground compaction cause my tractor is the heavier IH 434 (3700 lbs). So I would cultivate sparingly and only when the weeds are sprouting. All this doesn't take care of between plant weeding which I guess has to be done by hand or left alone.

Just so I'm straight on the sequence, I should
disk harrow first to break up clods, then spike arrow to bring up under turf, right, or is that the other way around?

Thanks.

When to disk, when to harrow???? Good question. I do it different depending on conditions. Water & weed issues will change it. Only experience will show you which is best when. I guess here most often harrowing (spike), disking (blade), & harrowing (spike) works best more of the time than not. If the soil is loose & mellow, you don't need the first harrowing. If it's very dry & lumpy, you need to disk 2 times, and/or add weight to the disk. If it's real wet, a disk is a bad implement, makes concrete not a seedbed, you would be better with a field cultivator.

All depends.

--->Paul

Sorry for the sarcasm, you are in for an education. :) :) :) Your neighbors are laying down the Dual & other weed killers.

Sweet corn, you need to worry about the weeds, worry about the bugs, and worry about the predators (racoons, etc.). You will be deep into sprays & cultivation. If you plant corn more than one year in a row, you really deplete the N in the soil, and increase the bugs that attack corn.

So, to plant what works best with small equip in my part of the world: harrow as early as possible, disk, harrow, plant right after the harrowing, then harrow just as the corn is starting to poke out of the ground.

If you leave a few days between operations, the weed seed sprouts & you kill it - this will mean less weeds during the year. However, if you are selling corn the early bird gets the best market so you want to plant as soon as possible.

Around here a spike harrow is the most popular, but you can use anything from chain link fence or a bedspring with a log on it to a spring tooth to a spike tooth. If you have a spike tooth harrow & you don't want to use chemicals, that last harrowing just as the corn is sprouting is most important to keep the weeds down. Also there are rotory-weeders (rolling disks that have 'spoons' on the tips) that can be used over the crop while it is a few inches high. All these operations are _very_ time sensitive to not hurt the corn, but to kill the very, very tiny weeds. If you can see green weeds, it's too late for these things to work.

You are going to have sod trying to regrow, and corn is a grass so there are few chemicals that will rescue your corn after it is up. You need to get the sod killed before you plant.

Good luck.

--->Paul

This assumes the racoons can find some other food around to their liking. If there is nothing else to eat, they will get in, no matter what.

--->Paul