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Sweet Corn 2012

10K views 38 replies 10 participants last post by  RDR 
#1 ·
It won't be long and it will be time to plant. Last year it was 2/14 when I did the first planting. I had some ground I had plowed and disced. There was a section I had to skip because of the electric fence that is now moved.Yesterday I put the 11 shank cutivator with chisels on with 240 lbs of weights on it. I then hit it with the 5' tiller. Today I went over it again. The next chance I get I'll hit it with the cultvator again. It might get another 200 lbs of weight. This ground has been goat pasture for 18 years and is hard.
 
#2 ·
I cuffed the rows up today. Tomorrow I need to spread fertilizer on the first ones to plant and hip it in. The worst part is there is enough moisture to plant. When that time comes I'll probably have to water to get moisture.
 
#3 ·
I had enough ground worked up for 18 rows. I need to move some equipment to get enough room to work up enough for 6 more. I won't need as many rows this year. Last year they were 200' long. These are 400' long.
 
#4 ·
Sounds like you've got it about ready to plant!

I managed to till my gardens in the last week or so, put onions out this Friday and some misc. greens and carrots Saturday. A little later than I normally plant that stuff, but I think it will still make. We got about 1.3" of rain early this morning, so I guess it's all watered in (or maybe washed away!).

I saw your new planter; are you going to plant with it this spring? I bought that 1 row Cole last year, still trying to find a plate that fits the G90 seed. Also still working on a cultivator; I cobbled one together last year but looking at using a different one this year id I can find a few pieces.

Andy
 
#5 ·
I'm jealous of you guys, we are supposed to have snow, not yet, and it won't be until mid may I can work in my gardens. I won't start some of my seeds until mid Feb. Good luck, glad you are getting some rain too!
 
#6 ·
We got 2.2" today. It came down too hard so some of it went down the ditch. My fertilizer got watered in though. I deffinitely have moisture to plant when the time comes.

Since it rained I goofed off some today. Actually got the camera out and took more pictures. Here I'll put one of the corn rows. I'll put a few more in my "winter garden" that will hurt those up north.
 

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#7 ·
I finally got everything moved so I could plow up more ground. I put the middlebuster on the Leyland and broke ground for 6 more rows. I actually have to wait a day or two for it to dry so it won't ball up in the disc. Then I'll grind it up with the tiller and put the rows up. I might not need them for corn, but better to have too many than not enough.
 
#8 ·
You make my heart start pumping when talking about planting corn already. Probably 100 days off from corn planting time here. Better than 18" snow fell in the past two days, but we need the water. No snow, no irrigation water. We need 120" on the ground, up in the Cascade Mtns. by the middle of Feb., for filling our mountain lakes.
 
#11 ·
Here is where I broke ground with a middlebuster. Also a temporary drainage ditch. My camera takes crappy pictures when the sun is shining, but got the p/u clearly going by around 65mph.

I'm going to start a thread "Vineyard 2012" and put what I'm doing with the blackberries in there. I haven't done much with the grapes yet but usually have the blackberries in there also.
 

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#12 ·
I chopped it up with my offset disc, hit it with the tiller and plowed it back up with the middlebuster. I knocked the tops down on 4 rows that are ready to plant. Then with my pail I walked spreading fertilizer. I hipped the rows back up burying the fertilizer. That was Monday. Tuesday we got .8" of rain. I think I'll plant some corn as soon as it dries out. If it gets burned by a frost oh well. If it makes maybe I'll have the first corn again this year.
 
#13 ·
I have the 2 row planter almost ready. I put pictures in the Heavy Equipment thread. As warm as the weather is here it will be hard not to plant this week.
 
#14 ·
It keeps raining. We need it, but I won't be planting for awhile. I'll probably wish I had planted if it stays warm.
 
#15 ·
Guess it may be a good thing I chickened out on planting 10 days ago. They are calling for a frost Monday morning. We are getting showers every few days. Not enough to do much good against the drought. Just keeps it damp and miserable.
 
#16 ·
I've always had poor luck with corn--seems like when it gets up bout 4ft.we have a wind storm and it gets bent,lol---my only question at this point is why so much corn??You must sell it-and that's a bunch of picking by hand.If you are hand picking.
 
#17 ·
As I read the hand picking part to my wife she said yeah. Three years ago I planted 1 lb. of G-90. I liked how well it did. That Dec. after Christmas I found many places sold out already so I had my Co Op order 25 lbs. I split it with a friend that has a vegetable farm 50 miles from me. I planted around 3.5 lbs 2 years ago and did well selling it. Last year I planted around 5.5 lbs. I had the only irrigated sweet corn. It had ears 8 to 10" long with some over 11". The other corn in the area was 4 to 7" long and no flavor. I also found around 95% of the people wanted it husked and cleaned. I fed the husks to the goats since the grass in the pasture was dry. We didn't eat 1 ear that I cleaned. All we got were the culls. If I was out people bought the culls.

The drought was terrible around here for farmers, but good for my vegetable sales. I have around 3.5 lbs. of seed left. If we have another dry year I might have to get more seed. If not, I might not plant all of it. Also back and neck problems might cancel everything.
 
#18 ·
First corn planted today. It was a little sticky, but the planter worked well. I'll see how the seed spacing is when it comes up.
 
#19 ·
If the rain will let up I'll be tilling my small plot this weekend. Thought about it last night as the sun is staying up longer but ended up just thinking about it :D
Course it's still way too early for the 1st planting around my way just yet.
I do want to set out some sweet oinions pretty soon tho....

G-90, I've not seen that around my way. The big sweet sellers at my local CoOp is Merit, Silver Queen, Golden Queen and Ambrosia. I've been planting Golden Queen the last 3 seasons. I bought a 1 lb bag and it's lasted me this long. Been keeping it in the freezer for storage. Probably use it up this season.

How many row planter do you have? Got pics you want to share of your eqt?
Action shots?
My garden is smaller than small time but enjoy reading/learning about you "big" timers :D

Dave
 
#20 ·
My brother in law always raved about Silver Queen. Two years ago we planted some. He had to admit the G-90 is as good if not better. G-90 is similiar to Butter and Sugar corn.

I have pictures in the Heavy Equipment section under JD 71 Flex planter. It started out as a 4 row. I cut up a cultivator tool bar and made a 2 row planter. I still have the 4 row tool bar if I need to put it back together.

I haven't figured out how to drive the tractor and take pictures at the same time.
 
#22 ·
Yesterday I checked the next 4 rows to plant. There was too much moisture. I hit them with the tiller to air it out. I also like to knock the rows down some before I plant. I like to hip them back up as the corn gets some size to it. This helps it from getting blown over.

Today I planted. I changed the drive sprocket from 11 to 14 teeth to speed it up a little. From what I have seen of the first corn it looks to have too much space between plants. If it turns out to be too much, I would rather have it too close than too far apart. I can always add extra fertilizer.
 
#24 ·
Looks to me that you are enjoying it down there. Last year we didn't plant till June and then the corn didn't come up right to start with.
 
#25 ·
My second corn is slow to come up. At the north end of the rows some is up. At the south end it has been too wet. I'm hoping for things to dry out to plant Sunday. More rain coming. Still a lot of mud around here. Last year by now I was tired of pumping water. Now I'm tired of mowing.
 
#26 ·
I fertilized 4 more rows, tilled it in and planted. I wish I had seen a JD 71 flex planter about 3 years ago. Maybe I would have found one sooner. It is sooo nice being on the tractor instead of pushing my earthway planter.
 
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