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Re: Corn

Square Foot Gardening List - http://myweb.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

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On 01:34 PM 2/22/01, Audrey wrote:

 >
 >Greetings all!  A newbie here!  I just re-read Square Foot Garden by M.
 >Barthelomew (now that I have a place to garden).  We live in Iowa and a
 >request of my dh is corn.  Any comments or suggestions on planting corn
 >using square foot method?  The book says one plant/seed per square foot, but
 >found a change to 4 per square foot.  Anyone have an experience with the 4
 >per square foot?

Mel wrote an article for Organic Gardening where he did corn at 4 per 
square!  See:

http://vo.cnchost.com/garden/organic.html

<quote>

1. THE 4 BY 4 SWEET CORN BUSHEL!

To reap a true cornucopia of corn (64 ears or more from a 4 by 4 foot 
space!), plant four seeds (or kernels) per square foot (that's four times 
my original recommendation of only one plant per square foot!).

I discovered this highly improved high-yield planting scheme quite by 
accident while filming a segment for my PBS TV series in South Carolina. I 
decided to space some corn closer together than I usually recommend, using 
varieties with very short stalks (like EARLY SUNGLOW and BUTTERFRUIT ), so 
that the growth would look more lush on camera. Later in the season, I 
found out that this planting not only looked lush, it was lush-four times 
as lush as my standard sweet corn planting scheme! I reaped 64 perfect 
juicy sweet ears of corn from just 16 square feet! (You can "up" that 
harvest to an astonishing 128 ears if you choose EARLY SUNGLOW, which bears 
two ears per stalk!)

This extra-close planting offers another benefit besides boosting your 
yields: It also makes it much easier to protect your corn patch from 
critters, thus ensuring that you get to eat each and every possible ear 
from your patch. Simply enclose each 4 by 4 foot corn patch in a chicken 
wire "cage" and you'll keep birds away from the seedlings and raccoons away 
from the mature ears! Use the 4 foot tall chicken wire fencing that has 1 
inch holes (available at hardware stores and garden centers); sink a stake 
into each corner of the bed, and then tie the wire to the stakes. (If your 
bed has a wooden frame, you can staple the bottom of the fencing to the 
frame for extra security.) Wire the ends of the fence together where they 
meet to enclose your patch, then cut a 4 by 4 foot piece of chicken wire to 
fasten over top of the whole works (the edges of this flat piece will rest 
on the top edges of the fence). This way the entire bed will be enclosed, 
and all you have to do is "lift the lid" (that piece of chicken wire on 
top) when it's time to harvest your critter-free corn!

</quote>


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