Harrowing After Planting Sweet Corn

Last year, was my first year planting any large amount of sweet corn. It turned out OK, but it was really weedy in the rows. I was able to keep the weeds down between rows with my Cub Cultivators.

Recently, I started reading here about harrowing after planting and before the corn comes up. What should I use for this? I was thinking of a drag type harrow made out of some chain link and lumber so it doesn't dig in too deep. Would this be enough to scrape the little weeds off before the corn starts coming up?

I would hate to go too deep with a harrow and dig up my freshly planted corn.

That's pretty much what a rotary hoe in made for if you can get your Cub moving fast enough for one to work.

Before rotary hoes were in use the spike tooth harrow was used for this work. It can even be used when the corn is starting to poke through the ground. Set the teeth very shallow so they dig only a half inch or so deep. Since the corn is planted a lot deeper than that it won't be a problem.

Dont do it.Your cultivator works, stay with it.The harrow will wipe out your corn seed.

Before herbicides got popular, a coil tine harrow was used. Melroe, Kovar, etc. They could be used when the corn was maybe 4-6 inches tall- if it was a warm sunny day- plants were more flexible and very few got damaged. One year we mounted a single harrow section on the rear of the 2 row C Allis, with the front gangs in place as well.

OK, thanks guys.

Here is a trick I been using for a few yrs and works great.
Disk your plot well and let it sit for 3 days or longer if no rain comes.
give weeds time to come up or you see a green tint to plot.At this point plant your seed 1in below soil. after you plant spray rows with round up. RIGHT AFTER YOU PLANT AND BE FOR RAIN.
You will kill the weeds that you gave time to grow. The seed will not be harmed. Your corn will be weed free. I plant 2 times a yr 1 in April AND 4 July I have planted as late as the 20th of july with no problem here in S.E PA. after you have the weed control working for you the BUGS are the next problem.
for the bugs use D/E pool filter earth You will need a spin seeder to lay in down. 5 POUNDS WILL DO 3 AC. do not go heavy Because it kills good bugs to. Do your homework on D/E all natural and works better then any thing out there.D/E is a natural de wormer for livestock,kills flys in barn kills flys on livestock. Many uses for it other than that. DO NOT USE ANYTHING IF POLLINATION IS NEAR OR TAKING PLACE.
If you have any ??? email me.

One more thing I forgot to say.
Use your cub as well to cultivate after corn is knee high side dress as well if you don't have a I-H dresser for your cub buy a Gandy 901 OR same.You can run off drive on cub. mount Front or back Or get the 12v model. Used, maybe 100.00 on Flea Bay.Works better then the Linkage,chain and bracket mess I-H made.BUT A MUST HAVE FOR COLLECTOR??!! I got one.Not used in 20 yrs.
The 901 is Easy to clean, 5 min to hook up and so on.
I use a 901 12V on my A. I-H sold them for a while if I am correct. Gandy is still making them and they mount to any tractor.
Lay down 29=n on both sides of row The 901 will do 2 rows on both sides. No closer then 8 in You will cause ROOT SHEAR (A sign of R/S is plants will turn purplish in color.
Toe the two shanks closes to plants in so you kick soil to plants.(front gangs)Doing that you can side dress one side in soil the other on top that is covered with soil from toeing two shanks. Drop tube in front of shank for on top side.
I know cultivating corn makes plot look GREAT with loose clean soil But if your tractor has the smallest oil leak ,grease balls on jerks fittings any were .You are doing more harm cultivating then good. It does not take much Oil,Grease,Anti-Freeze to mess up your rows.
(Old man kicked my azz for that oil in Field thing)
It counts anytime you are in Field with tractor leaking or grease boogies falling off axle pin that is over greased. (Maybe you are on top of this)
You can do all 100% perfect But Mother Nature has the last word in any crop.


Hope this info helps you out friend.

Here, I thought I was the only one who thought of using a rotary hoe. Guess there's a couple of other relics of the old days left after all.

Well, I have been researching mechanical cultivation and have decided I need a rotary hoe to pull behind my Farmall M. I have found a few on Craigslist and will probably go and look at one this weekend.

Here are some links that I have found on mechanical cultivation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1tyEn7KEIs

http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/features/2005/0105/earlyweeds/index1.shtml

http://www.organicriskmanagement.umn.edu/weed_management.pdf

I hope this helps someone in the future.