Growing corn in raised bed

[NativeOddity]

Hello everyone! This last growing season I raised corn on a sister patch and it did pretty well. There was a nice amount of corn, considering I had a lot of rain and my sister patch had poor drainage, I was able to get some pumpkin, corn, and of course beans! Now, this growing season since we will be fixing the drainage issue and for crop rotation purposes, I am planting corn seedlings in a 8x4 raised bed. I am starting the seeds indoors and transplanting out when it’s time. Has anyone ever tried this method before? I was wondering g if I had to build mounds or since I am using a raised bed that isn’t necessary. Any tips and/or advice is well appreciated here.

 

[Chuck]

Just plant the seedlings close together, 8-12 inches apart. Being 4 feet wide you can approach the plants from both sides so you will not need row spacing. Corn is a grass and likes a lot of nitrogen.

 

[Marck]

There should be no need to plant on mounds in a raised bed.

Do plant in a block rather than a row to enhance pollination. For a small planting always do what you can with a paintbrush to distribute to pollen as evenly as possible, especially onto the plants on the upwind side of the bed.

Corn germinates rather quickly, so sowing in January may be too early, unless you intend to grow some rather large transplants indoors.

 

[NativeOddity]

I’m actually starting them from seeds in May, def not now. I read about the block method rather than rows. I am alittle confused about the way it really looks in how it’s described to space it…

“

Spacing in Smaller Gardens​

If you don't have a farm, growing corn in a backyard raised bed is still possible with a little ingenuity. You can cut back on individual plant spacing just a bit – to about 10 to 12 inches between each plant – but plant in double rows. Leave about 12 inches between the double rows within each block and leave roughly 30 to 42 inches between each block.
The key is to focus on creating short, thick blocks. Keep the double rows or short blocks down to no more than 4 feet in length if possible. Ideally, as Gardener's Supply Company advises, you can maximize your corn pollination by planting a minimum of 18 plants in each block. In a 3 x 6-foot raised bed, that comes out to about two corn plants per square foot, with one block occupying about half of the bed.”

 

[NativeOddity]

There should be no need to plant on mounds in a raised bed.

Do plant in a block rather than a row to enhance pollination. For a small planting always do what you can with a paintbrush to distribute to pollen as evenly as possible, especially onto the plants on the upwind side of the bed.

Corn germinates rather quickly, so sowing in January may be too early, unless you intend to grow some rather large transplants indoors.

A paintbrush?

 

[Chuck]

Start your first "row" of seeds about 6 inches from the side and the end of the bed and place two seeds about every 10-12 inches. You should end up with about 32 plants Planting two seeds is just a safeguard so you will have 100% germination. Then plant another row of seeds just like the first and do this until the last row making sure that you are about 6 inches from the side of the bed. The 6 inches is to allow for root growth. After the seeds sprout thin the extra sprouts. Corn is wind pollinated. The corn tassels produce the pollen and this pollen is spread by the wind down onto the silk of the newly forming ear of corn. Each strand of silk will produce 1 kernel of corn. To have a full ear of corn each strand of silk is pollinated, if not there will be gaps or spaces between the kernels. I suppose it is theoretically possible to pollinate with a paintbrush but shaking the stalk or hitting it with a stick would be IMO a much better option as it doesn't take but a minute or two about twice a day. Once silk starts to show it doesn't all form and be exposed at the same time so if you try to manually pollinate each ear this may be a big problem for you. Once the silk STARTS to turn brown spray/soak the tip of the new corncob with with either BT or mineral oil. BT works MUCH better. This is to keep the corn ear worm from eating the kernels at the tip, and, sometimes much more than just the kernels at the tip. If you are not plagued by the corn ear worm in NY forget the BT. Also, many times the tassels will be attacked by little black beetles. If you see them spray the tassels with spinosad. Corn likes a lot of nitrogen. Here in Texas it can get VERY windy while corn is growing. When I plant small blocks of corn I lasso the entire block of corn and tie it to something to keep it from blowing over as corn has a fairly shallow root system.