I am a beginning gardener and I'm having trouble with my sweet corn. I
know just from research that its common for sweet corn plants to be
smaller than field varieties but I can't help wondering if I'm doing
something wrong.

Some background:
I live in South Florida (or close enough to it) so the growing season
is almost the opposite of northern states. Down here our growing
season is late summer through mid-spring. I planted the corn about two
months ago (August) and most of the plants have reached about 3 to 4
feet high. The problem is each plant is only producing a single, small
ear. The plant stems are about a half inch in diameter near the base
and gradually become about a thin as a pencil lead at the top. Each
ear is growing very low on the stem and appear to be maturing when
they are only about an inch in diameter and three inches long. I'm
assuming they are ready to harvest because the "hairs" have turned try
and brown.

The garden is located against an eight foot high privacy fence so
inadequate sunlight is one possibility. There is also a tree on the
neighbor's side of the fence that may be robbing the soil of
nutrients. Additionally there is a pine tree not to far away that
constantly bombards the garden with pine needles. I would have planted
in the center of the yard except there is a septic leach field and I
was worried about contamination.

The one thing I'm sure of is enough water. I use a soaker hose for
drip irrigation so I know the corn is getting plenty of water.

Any ideas/suggestions?

"ksc654" wrote in message
I am a beginning gardener and I'm having trouble with my sweet corn. I
know just from research that its common for sweet corn plants to be
smaller than field varieties but I can't help wondering if I'm doing
something wrong.

Some background:
I live in South Florida (or close enough to it) so the growing season
is almost the opposite of northern states. Down here our growing
season is late summer through mid-spring. I planted the corn about two
months ago (August) and most of the plants have reached about 3 to 4
feet high. The problem is each plant is only producing a single, small
ear. The plant stems are about a half inch in diameter near the base
and gradually become about a thin as a pencil lead at the top. Each
ear is growing very low on the stem and appear to be maturing when
they are only about an inch in diameter and three inches long. I'm
assuming they are ready to harvest because the "hairs" have turned try
and brown.

The garden is located against an eight foot high privacy fence so
inadequate sunlight is one possibility. There is also a tree on the
neighbor's side of the fence that may be robbing the soil of
nutrients. Additionally there is a pine tree not to far away that
constantly bombards the garden with pine needles. I would have planted
in the center of the yard except there is a septic leach field and I
was worried about contamination.

The one thing I'm sure of is enough water. I use a soaker hose for
drip irrigation so I know the corn is getting plenty of water.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Lack of sunlight would be one reason but also probably lack of food. Sweet
Corn is a really gross feeder and (unless you have somehow got a minature
variety - not that I've ever seen such a thing) you really need to pile up
food and mulch around the stems as the corn grows. Corn will put out new
roots into the mulch from each of the 'joints' along the stem. Either last
year or the year before we used elephant poop mixed with old straw around
the stems as the corn grew and it reached that proverbial 'high as an
elephant's eye' height.