Sweet corn thrives in home gardens

BATON ROUGE — Sweet corn is a warm-season garden staple along with tomatoes and cucumbers. It’s not difficult to grow, says LSU AgCenter vegetable specialist Kiki Fontenot. But following these basic tips will aid in that success.
Plant early
Planting corn as soon as possible after the last frost will allow you to miss higher pest populations, Fontenot said.
“Insects can wreak havoc on plants, and corn is no exception,” she said. To reduce insects in your corn patch, simply plant earlier in the season when pest populations are lower. As the weather warms, stink bug and corn earworm populations tend to rise.
While sweet corn can be grown throughout the summer, the typical planting dates in Louisiana are February 15 through May 15.
Use fertilizer
“Corn loves fertilizer as much as a pig loves to eat corn,” said AgCenter program assistant Bobby Williams.
When preparing a garden for corn, apply 4-6 pounds of 13-13-13 fertilizer per 100 feet of row one to three weeks prior to planting. Then sidedress with five to seven pounds of nitrogen fertilizer such as calcium nitrate or potassium nitrate per 100 feet of row when the corn is 12-inches tall and again at 24-inches tall.
If the leaves are yellowing, you can apply a little more, Fontenot said. But if the kernels are already set, you don’t need to worry about adding much more.
“You’ll know at harvest if you didn’t apply enough fertilizer because the tip of the ear will not fill out,” she said.
Make a “patch”
Plant at least three rows of corn side by side for optimum pollination, Fontenot said. Corn is wind pollinated, so having a wider grouping of corn is much better than one long row.
Leave the tillers
“Corn, like many other grasses, will produce tillers as it grows,” Fontenot said. “A tiller is a new shoot that grows from the base of the corn plant.”
Tillers do not need to be removed. In some cases, the tiller may help support the corn plant in high wind and reduce the chance of it falling over.
“All kinds of sweet and ornamental corn are available,” Fontenot said. “Consider planting popcorn or a dent corn.”
Dent corn gets its name from a dent that forms on top of the kernel after it has dried, Williams. Dent corns have higher starch content and are not as palatable as sweet corns. They can be ground into grits or flour or used as decoration.
Dent corns come in a wide range of colors from greens and reds to blues and combinations of everything in between. “An example is Glass Gem, a recently rediscovered heirloom corn that has gardeners’ attention,” Williams said.
Many gardeners will start the season by planting a sweet corn variety and then wait at least two weeks and plant an ornamental or popcorn variety. This is done to reduce cross pollination between the two types of corn because the tassels will develop at separate times.
Because of the later planting dates, corn earworms tend to eat the tops of popcorn ears. “But because popcorn is removed from the ear, the damage is not as big of an issue as with sweet corn, which is eaten off the cob,” Fontenot said.
Popcorns come in a variety of colors and ear sizes, and most varieties produce one to three ears per plant. “After growing your own popcorn, you will have trouble eating store-bought corn again, so make sure you grow plenty of it for late-summer movie nights,” Williams said.