Always in the past, when planting corn, I have soaked the seeds 24 hours, threw some steer manure between the rows, planted the seeds and prayed to the corn gods. This has been a hit and miss method. Last year, was an epoch fail, but part of the issue was the cold June we had. In reading up on how to be successful with corn in the Pacific NW's Rain Forest regions, a lot has to do with sustaining warm soil temps, quick maturity of the plants, fertilize a little extra with K and P, and water a lot extra.
How I approached the corn this year was to black tarp the garden in April to kill out weeds. The other feature of this was that it made the soil in the raised bed a bit warmer for planting. In May I tilled and watered in steer manure and bone meal. I should have included Potash, but didn't have it on hand. I used a lot of fresh compost which had a lot of egg shells in it, and hoped for the best.
Picked up sweet corn seed that had an early yield of 60 days. Understandably, 60 days is not 60 days around here! Think more in terms of 90 days in the Pacific NW rain belt. Soil needs to sustain at least 60F for a week or more to get the sprouts to pop up in about 10-14 days. This year, I planted a little closer together at about 11 inch squares two seeds every 11 inches. My corn patch is only 4' X 8'. That equates to 4 rows with 8 plants per row. Anything closer together makes it hard to water well between the rows. If I can get two plants to come up (about 50% will) that potentially gives us 45+ ears of corn at the end of the season.
We strive to maintain organic. I use our compost pile to restart/amend the garden after the winter. Our compost contains no meats or bones but does get a heavy supply of eggs and egg shells. We supplement the compost with chicken manure and aspen shavings a couple times per year to heat it up and speed up the breakdown.
I also utilize organic-approved bone meal, blood meal, lime and steer manure on my gardens. I ran out of Potash Magnesia last year. In the past I have used Sulfate of Potash Magnesia which has a K of 22% and what I was looking to replenish relative to my garden needs. Due to my late purchase, I ended up having to pick up Muriate of Potash which has a K of 60%.... GULP! Great for things like potatoes and carrots, but a bit much (wasteful) for corn and beans....
I think I have it calculated out. 1/2 cup per 100 sq feet is about 136 grams (in weight). My garden area is about a third of the size, and the strength that I need was a third of that. Broken all down, I needed about 10-12 granules of Potash/sq foot. That bag of Potash is going to be lasting me a whole lotta years! I need to remember to just sprinkle some over the ground this fall and let it perk over the winter, too, since in its current state, it is slow to dissolve.
Addendum 2019 - Pre planting - April 1 at the latest, pull/hoe out large weeds. Sprinkle a liberal layer of steer manure over the corn bed, then cover the whole area with a dark plastic tarp. Batten down the tarp with heavy wood or bricks and let it set until about May 15. Then pull back the tarp, pull all weeds, roots, etc. Then till or spade the area with a nice dose of bone meal and a small dose of potash. Then water liberally until it is time to plant. One week before planting, soak, in a wet paper towel between two plates (one right side up and the other upside down as a cover), the amount of seeds needed for planting in the garden + about ten to be started in the greenhouse/garden window. Germinating the seeds for a week in a damp, dark environment, gives them a starting boost. After planting, if you anticipate any days where the temps will be lower than 70 for more than two days in a row within the first three weeks of planting, you might want to consider using a floating row cover to help them stay warm and give them a better chance of survival.
June, 2019 on average, was almost 10 degrees warmer than 2018. Corn is taller plus they even have tillers (two to three suckers) branching out from the bottoms of the stalks. I have read on several sites that the tillers are not likely to reduce the plant's nutrient needs, and so there is no need to cut them off. On occasion, the tillers will get large enough to grow an ear of corn, adding to the production. There can be three causes for tillers: 1) the stalks are planted too far apart (Mine are not, they are actually much closer together this year), 2) the stalks were damaged/injured (I don't think they got damaged), 3) that there is plenty of nutrients in the soil, causing the stalks to make extra shoots.
This year, I planted 40 seeds, eight rows (10" apart) and five per row (8" apart). This did seem to help with production and maturity.
Addendum 2019 - Pre planting - April 1 at the latest, pull/hoe out large weeds. Sprinkle a liberal layer of steer manure over the corn bed, then cover the whole area with a dark plastic tarp. Batten down the tarp with heavy wood or bricks and let it set until about May 15. Then pull back the tarp, pull all weeds, roots, etc. Then till or spade the area with a nice dose of bone meal and a small dose of potash. Then water liberally until it is time to plant. One week before planting, soak, in a wet paper towel between two plates (one right side up and the other upside down as a cover), the amount of seeds needed for planting in the garden + about ten to be started in the greenhouse/garden window. Germinating the seeds for a week in a damp, dark environment, gives them a starting boost. After planting, if you anticipate any days where the temps will be lower than 70 for more than two days in a row within the first three weeks of planting, you might want to consider using a floating row cover to help them stay warm and give them a better chance of survival.
June, 2019 on average, was almost 10 degrees warmer than 2018. Corn is taller plus they even have tillers (two to three suckers) branching out from the bottoms of the stalks. I have read on several sites that the tillers are not likely to reduce the plant's nutrient needs, and so there is no need to cut them off. On occasion, the tillers will get large enough to grow an ear of corn, adding to the production. There can be three causes for tillers: 1) the stalks are planted too far apart (Mine are not, they are actually much closer together this year), 2) the stalks were damaged/injured (I don't think they got damaged), 3) that there is plenty of nutrients in the soil, causing the stalks to make extra shoots.
This year, I planted 40 seeds, eight rows (10" apart) and five per row (8" apart). This did seem to help with production and maturity.
Week 2 = Blood Meal (June 10) Corn is approximate 3 inches high
Week 4 = Steer Manure (June 24) Corn approx 8 inches
Week 6 = Steer Manure (July 8) Corn approx 2 feet
Week 7 = Tassels are forming early (July 13) Corn approx 3-4 feet (when tassels - needs extra boost of potassium and time to stop the Nitrogens)
Week 8+ = Small doses of bone meal (phosphrous) for the next 3 to 4 weeks.
Week 9 = Corn Silks forming (July 27) Corn approx 6-7 feet
Week 11 = Corn starting to be ready for harvest (Aug 13) and corn silks are starting to dry out
After corn is all harvested, sprinkle some more potash in the soil and let it rest over the winter.
Week 9 = Corn Silks forming (July 27) Corn approx 6-7 feet
Week 11 = Corn starting to be ready for harvest (Aug 13) and corn silks are starting to dry out
After corn is all harvested, sprinkle some more potash in the soil and let it rest over the winter.
I will update this post if my strategy changes due to weather. This year, we have had a normal June, but an exceptionally hot July and August so I'm thinking this has contributed to the tassels forming already.
August update on Week 11. The first ears of corn were harvested 11 weeks or 77 days after planting. There is not a lot ready to harvest; only two on the East end of the garden were ready, but more are sure to follow over the next few weeks. The "early" corn that was supposed to be ready to harvest in about 65 days (9 weeks) has taken an extra half-month, even during an extremely hot summer with close to 20 days of 90+ F temperatures. I planted Sweet Corn Sweetness Bicolored from the Hume Seed company. As is most sweet corn, it was a hybrid.
2019 update for week 11. Despite the number of cooler days this year, and the number of strangeness, possibly due to the very hot June, then cool July and August days mixed in with a few 80+ F days with more humidity than usual, we started getting fully formed ears at week 11, approximately 19 days after the silk started forming. This year, we had tillers, tassel ears formed on the tillers, and conjoined baby ears on full sized ears. This year we planted Early Sunglow, a hybrid yellow, and the ears are about 7" with a nice sweet flavor.
2019 update for week 11. Despite the number of cooler days this year, and the number of strangeness, possibly due to the very hot June, then cool July and August days mixed in with a few 80+ F days with more humidity than usual, we started getting fully formed ears at week 11, approximately 19 days after the silk started forming. This year, we had tillers, tassel ears formed on the tillers, and conjoined baby ears on full sized ears. This year we planted Early Sunglow, a hybrid yellow, and the ears are about 7" with a nice sweet flavor.
If you look at the photos for week 11 below, you will see that the corn cobs still are not fully formed. We, personally, prefer them this way because the kernels are sweeter and less tough if we don't wait for the complete development. On the other hand, if we want to freeze corn for winter consumption we will wait for the corn to fully develop on the cob, blanch them, cut the corn off the cob and freeze the kernels on a cookie sheet. Then we promptly bag enough for a meal into a plastic sandwich bag for later consumption.
Week 12 - We are finally starting to see the rewards of all our hard work this year on our corn patch! The primary corn I planted this year was "bi-colored" sweet corn. That corn silk was white and light yellow. In the 12-week photos below, you might notice that we have some corn that has purple silk and purple stalks/tassels which got very tall this past week. These just came on this past week and are a different corn variety from a year ago. I had some seeds in a pack left over from last year's failed attempt. I used them as the "second" seed in some of the plantings. I don't even remember what type they are. It will be interesting to compare them to the 60-day bi-color corn.
That is the nature of growing corn in the Pacific Northwest. It is a lot of work and I am actually surprised that it is ready this early. I expected to have to wait at least two more weeks.
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| Week 2 (2018) |
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| Week 4 (2018) |
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| Week 5 (2018) |
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| Week 7 (2018) |
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| Week 7 Tassles |
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| Week 9 - 6-7' tall |
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| Week 9 - First Corn Silks |
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| Week 9 - The Fruit is on the stalk (2018) |
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| Week 11 - Silks are Drying (2018) |
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| Week 11 - Close Enough for Cooking Bi-colored Sweet Corn |
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| Week 12 - The Harvest is Upon Us |
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| Different Corn Seeds from Last Year |
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| Tassel for Purple Silked Corn |
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| Purple Tassels shot up 12th week |
Some websites that might help with ideas for varieties and ideas for growing corn in the Pacific NW.
http://mynorthwestgarden.com/home/corn
Cornell University Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners If you notice the abbreviations in the descriptions, (su = standard sweet corn, se = sugar enhanced sweet corn, and sh2 = super sweet) it can help you decide which varieties of sweet corn to choose. Some people prefer the sweeter corn variants.
http://barbolian.com/grow-corn-in-the-pacific-northwest/
For 2019, I kept a corn journal and if you click on the term "corn journal" on any of those posts, it will pull the posts up for that tag.
