On 21 May 2007 07:14:29 -0700, texas_gardener wrote:
This kid that works for me (my "gardener," which sounds a lot more
pretentious than it actually merits), insists that to grow corn, it
has to be in full sunlight and you have to have at least three rows in
order for it to germinate. Is this true?

Yield is pretty much proportional to amount of sunlight, all other factors
being equal.

Planting scheme has nothing to do with germination, but corn planted
in other than big blocks (10x10 row minimum) should probably be hand
pollinated (easy but tedious) to avoid lots of "blanks" (undeveloped
kernals).

Corn is terribly sensitive to drought during the stages that the pollen
is developing (from before tassel emergence to full tassel),
so it needs to be kept watered at that point especially.

And there are some other gotchas with pollination, depending on the type
you're growing -- supersweet, extra sweet, regular...

I still say most home gardeners are better off buying their sweetcorn
locally from produce stands when you consider space and water and time.