my sweet corn seems to be dying
 

I have a strip of fertile ground on the south side of our house that
gets full sun. It runs east-west along the side of our garage, with no
trees or shrubs anywhere nearby. The area is about 25' long and sticks
out from the house about 5'.

I decided to try planting corn for about the first time in perhaps 11
years as a late crop after harvesting cabbage in late June. I soaked
the seeds of 3 varieties of sweet corn to give it a head start, then
planted them once they started to sprout, on July 3. The plants are now
roughly 8 to 8 and a half feet tall.

I fertilized the plants lightly every 4 weeks, and also mulched
somewhat lightly with straw to keep the weeds down. I thinned the
plants out to about 9" or 10" apart, in rows 12" or 13" apart. I
figured that with the rows this short, I can just reach in to harvest
the ears.

The plants did fantastic up to when they started to tassel, about 7
days ago. I noticed that lower leaves started to yellow, then brown and
wither. I thought that perhaps something was eating them, and applied a
bit of sevin. Then I looked at some photos online, and saw today that
it might be some sort of northern leaf blight, so I applied daconil
herbicide.

Today has been a windy day, and 4-6 of the plants have blown
completely over. Things are not looking good! I noticed that the
plants are only just now starting to put out those tiny side bracing
roots that come down from about 1" above the soil surface, so they are
not helping to brace the plants.

It looks like I may have to resign myself to my second sweet corn
failure (2 out of 2). The first time was caused by squirrels who
decided to bite the base of each plant, and eat a tiny bit, right when
the ears were starting to form. Likewise, this time the ears are just
starting to form, again.

Is there anything I might be able to do in order to help at least get
some sort of crop? I'm wondering if I needed to thin them out quite a
bit more, but everything looked great until the last 7 days.

Could part of it be due to my mulching with straw? It really kept
the weeds down, and helped retain soil moisture. However, I'm wondering
if it also may have retarded the root growth, and caused the corn to
have a shallow root system. Then again, the corn that blew over did not
come out at the roots - it bent over about 3' up.

*sigh*. I'm just not having good results with sweet corn.

my sweet corn seems to be dying
 

*sigh*. I'm just not having good results with sweet corn.

Well, my gut feeling was that each plant needed more room, so I went
out there with a utility knife and cut down every other plant, and a bit
more. I probably took out about 1/2 of the corn. I noticed that some
still had no sign of ears at all, and I made sure to cut those off.

Some of the plants had 3" to 4" ears, so that was a bit depressing,
cutting those down.

I think that with more room at least I have a chance to get some
harvest, right?

The rows are still spaced the same (tight, at about 13" or 14"), but
at least the plants are now 18" in the rows, instead of 9" apart. I
think I could have gotten away with tight rows, or closely planted, but
perhaps not both.

my sweet corn seems to be dying
 

On Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:03:49 -0400, Ohioguy wrote:

I have a strip of fertile ground on the south side of our house that
gets full sun. It runs east-west along the side of our garage, with no
trees or shrubs anywhere nearby. The area is about 25' long and sticks
out from the house about 5'.

I decided to try planting corn for about the first time in perhaps 11
years as a late crop after harvesting cabbage in late June. I soaked
the seeds of 3 varieties of sweet corn to give it a head start, then
planted them once they started to sprout, on July 3. The plants are now
roughly 8 to 8 and a half feet tall.

I fertilized the plants lightly every 4 weeks, and also mulched
somewhat lightly with straw to keep the weeds down. I thinned the
plants out to about 9" or 10" apart, in rows 12" or 13" apart. I
figured that with the rows this short, I can just reach in to harvest
the ears.

The plants did fantastic up to when they started to tassel, about 7
days ago. I noticed that lower leaves started to yellow, then brown and
wither. I thought that perhaps something was eating them, and applied a
bit of sevin. Then I looked at some photos online, and saw today that
it might be some sort of northern leaf blight, so I applied daconil
herbicide.

Today has been a windy day, and 4-6 of the plants have blown
completely over. Things are not looking good! I noticed that the
plants are only just now starting to put out those tiny side bracing
roots that come down from about 1" above the soil surface, so they are
not helping to brace the plants.

It looks like I may have to resign myself to my second sweet corn
failure (2 out of 2). The first time was caused by squirrels who
decided to bite the base of each plant, and eat a tiny bit, right when
the ears were starting to form. Likewise, this time the ears are just
starting to form, again.

Is there anything I might be able to do in order to help at least get
some sort of crop? I'm wondering if I needed to thin them out quite a
bit more, but everything looked great until the last 7 days.

Could part of it be due to my mulching with straw? It really kept
the weeds down, and helped retain soil moisture. However, I'm wondering
if it also may have retarded the root growth, and caused the corn to
have a shallow root system. Then again, the corn that blew over did not
come out at the roots - it bent over about 3' up.

*sigh*. I'm just not having good results with sweet corn.

I bet your night temps are too low for late season corn... here in the
Catskills it's reached 75º during the day but at night it's dropped
into the 40s already... leaves are already turning, gonna be a very
early fall. I can tell by how the Canada geese are already grouping
up that it will be an early and severe winter. I'll know for certain
if my hummers leave early.

my sweet corn seems to be dying
 

Ohioguy said:

The plants did fantastic up to when they started to tassel, about 7
days ago. I noticed that lower leaves started to yellow, then brown and
wither. I thought that perhaps something was eating them, and applied a
bit of sevin. Then I looked at some photos online, and saw today that
it might be some sort of northern leaf blight, so I applied daconil
herbicide.

Today has been a windy day, and 4-6 of the plants have blown
completely over. Things are not looking good! I noticed that the
plants are only just now starting to put out those tiny side bracing
roots that come down from about 1" above the soil surface, so they are
not helping to brace the plants.

I think perhaps you did not fertilize enough, and I'd suggest that
there may have been a particular shortage of potassium. (The scorching
of the lower leaves, lack of prop roots and stalks falling over point
to this.)

I plant my corn in blocks of 4 x 4 plants, 12" apart, so it isn't neccessarily
the crowding that is your problem.

These blocks get a lot of compost added in the spring, plus alfalfa meal,
plus potassium sulfate.

They get mulched with shredded leaves when the plants are about 8" tall
and get a side-dressing of bloodmeal at that time, with another side
dressing of a balanced organic fertilizer when the plants begin to tassel.

If they seem to be looking a little, hmm, "off" I will spray them with a
kelp solution (Maxicrop).

My biggest problem this year is that I wasn't able to get my preferred
variety of late corn, and the substitute is both much earlier than
described (no fresh corn for Labor Day!) and has a bad habit of open
tips, which has proven very attractive to sap beetles. Easy enough to
snap off the damaged tips, though.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

email valid but not regularly monitored

my sweet corn seems to be dying
 

I don't think that night temperatures are a problem - it has not
gotten down below about 58 degrees here yet.

It seems like the top of the plants had optimum growing conditions,
and rocketed right up. However, perhaps I was watering a bit too often,
and the root systems may not be as extensive as they should be.