2016 Sweet Corn

We're growing some sweet corn to sell again this year. We tried it last year and it turned out pretty good (in spite of my wife having a baby the first day we were selling it).  This year we are going to plant a few more rows and hopefully improve on last year.  I'll update this post as the growing season progresses.

In March, when things started turning green, I went and marked out the corn plot and sprayed it with a non-selective herbicide.



4/16/16 (3 weeks after spray was applied)

R. and I went out on the Mule with corn seed and a single row planter to plant the first 15 rows of corn.



It had been long enough since area was sprayed that the Field Bindweed (a.k.a. Morning Glory) and some volunteer wheat was coming back nicely.  After the corn was planted we put the 8 foot spray boom on the 4-wheeler and sprayed the plot with herbicide again.  The soil in this field is heavily populated with dormant Mourning Glory seeds, which can remain viable for up to 50 years (http://www.nwcb.wa.gov/detail.asp?weed=39).  It is a weed that is nearly impossible to get rid of.  Seeds can spread by hitching a ride on farm equipment, be blown about by the wind, and can even pass through an animal and still sprout.  If given a chance, this noxious weed will take over and almost completely choke out a crop.  We are trying to keep it at bay until the corn comes up and can establish itself in the soil.

Once the corn is about 3 to 4 inches tall we'll plant our second round of corn.  We will do a total of 3 staggered plantings to spread the corn out so it won't all be ready at once.

A very proud helper.  He was in charge of refilling the planter and raking dirt over any seed left exposed behind it.

April 24th.

Watered for the first time.

G. cleaning out corrugates.

May 14th

Re-corrugated and planted second round of corn seed.

Saturday, May 28th

Watered corn for the second time. 

Friday, June 3rd

The family went out and pulled weeds.

Pulling weeds, or looking for worms?

Saturday, June 4th

You have probably noticed in some of the pictures that there is a large variance in the sizes of corn plants in the rows of corn.  Also, there is no uniformity in spacing in between plants.  Some are so close together they form their own little forest, while others have almost 2 feet between them.  

While it is possible that these inconsistencies were caused by the person who planted the seed (me), I believe that the problem lies with the Earth Way single row planter I used to plant the seed.  It works great in a garden, but is lousy in a field.  It is too lightweight.  The corn seed gets caught in the little hopper and stops the plate from turning, and it has a hard time dropping only one seed at a time.  It is, however, still a step up from planting by hand.  

Thinking ahead to next year, we have been looking for a tractor driven 2 or 4 row planter to buy.  On June 4th we went to a farm auction in Meridian to try and pick one up.  This was a 6 row John Deere 71 Flex planter. We weren't really looking for one that big, but for the right price we could make it work.  Between an auctioneer my wife and I have both known since we were little helping us out and other bidders taking pity on me as I stood there with a bunch of clingy kids that were bouncing all around, we ended up getting that planter for a fraction of what we expected.  Unfortunately, since our corn is already planted. now I have to wait a year before we can actually use it.

At the farm sale, just got our planter loaded.

Tying down the planter.