corn fertilizers?

[jbclem]

I'd like to hear what type and brand(s) of fertilizer are preferred for corn. I've been using Jack's soluble 25-5-15, but I want to get an idea of a dry type of fertilizer that people like to use. I'm growing in raised beds and 5 gal containers, everything in cages to protect from squirrels.

[GoDawgs]

I use Rainbow 10-10-10 (contains micronutrients) under the seed as a starter and then use ammonium sulfate at the 2-4 leaf stage rather than the amm nitate as corn likes a little sulfur. It's just generic ammonium sulfate from the local feed & seed. More of the same when I see the tassels starting to appear. With that last fert I add a dash of superphosphate (0-30-0). Since I started using the 0-30-0 at the end I've not noticed any more purple streaks at the bottom of stalks, indicating it's hungry.

[Tormato]

I recommend reading up on all aspects of fertilizing corn. It's not just what type(s) to use, but also the timing. Side dressing should be done at a certain stage of growth. I do not remember the details, at the moment. Corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder, if I remember that correctly.

[Cole_Robbie]

Corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder, if I remember that correctly.

Absolutely. Big farms use ammonium nitrate.

[GoDawgs]

This article will tell you just about all you need to know about how corn grows. And what amazed me was how early in corn's life a lot of major things are determined and affect the outcome.

https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub ... uick-guide

I took most of my fertilizer info from this about four years ago with a few exceptions. I subbed 10-10-10 under the corn instead of the ammonium sulfate. Subbed sulfate for the nitrate. Added some superphos at the end for a bit of added boost for ear production. Works fine for me. Yep, corn is a HEAVY feeder!

[Cole_Robbie]

Nitrogen is the first to wash away when it rains. A clay soil will retain the P and K much longer.

[jbclem]

I have ammonium sulfate, which I've used for citrus and blueberries. I dissolve it in water before I apply it. Do you use it dry or dissolved?

I also have Peter's 21-7-7 which is on the acidic side. Would that work for corn?. .

[Tormato]

I have ammonium sulfate, which I've used for citrus and blueberries. I dissolve it in water before I apply it. Do you use it dry or dissolved?

I also have Peter's 21-7-7 which is on the acidic side. Would that work for corn?. .

Yes, and no.

Overuse would likely lower your soil pH too far, unless you water with very alkaline water. Soil pH at 6 to 6.5 is ideal for corn, in the high 5s is OK.

Also heavy rain could wash away much of that type of fert. Using the Peters, along with another type could get tricky, but done right it would work.

I was in WalMart yesterday and overheard a couple exiting a gardening aisle mentioning Easy Peasy. They do have a 46-0-0 urea fert (I don't know if my local WalMart carries it), that used correctly might be that good later side dressing. Me, I would probably research the best ratio of 46-0-0 combined with a 10-10-10, and make my own cost efficient mix.

My plan is to plant some corn this year, too. So, I have to very shortly get it on with research on fert, myself, and get something to compliment the 10-10-10 that I always have a supply of.

When applying such heavy nitrogen fert, make sure that your research, application timing and math are relatively correct.

[GoDawgs]

Dry fert. It lasts longer. Liquid just washes out with rain, IMHO.

[JRinPA]

Corn is a grass, right? How bout lawn fertilizer?


Question: from godawg's link
3 weeks, V6 V7

The growing point is above the soil surface and rapid stem elongation begins. Some tillers (suckers) may have initiated. Sucker development varies with hybrid, plant density, fertility and other environmental conditions.

Who all breaks off the tillers?

I do, but I miss them once in a while and at some point last year I had tassels on the end of the tillers and they were dropping pollen well after the main stem. I used some to hand pollinate some 2nd/3rd cobs. But I need to stop trying for 3 cobs; the third rarely makes an edible cob for me.

[GoDawgs]

I don't break them off.

Side note: I think I spied the first several Silver Queens coming up last evening.

[JRinPA]

My 2nd corn block is a double row planted at 4". No time for ferts that block and I never got back to thin. So two rows of corn, 4"-8" depending on skips, and 20" apart, but room to grow right or left. They just never really did. It is starting to tassel, no side shoots for once. A few areas I am starting to see a few feet of bottom leaves browning.

What would you do at this point to go for one good ear each stalk? Or would some of you pull every other stalk or every 4th even at this late stage?

[GoDawgs]

I would think that it might be too late to thin plants now without seriously disturbing the roots of the rest of them. I guess you could safely thin by cutting off the stalks at the soil surface but if they're already tasseling it might be too late to change things now.

[Tormato]

I'd cut at about ground level, not pull, the 4" spaced ones, saving the stoutest plants of course.

For the 8" spaced ones, I'd cut into the roots, with my trusty flat-spaded shovel and then pull, if I had plenty of plants. Otherwise, I'd leave them alone. I rarely get more than one ear to a plant unless spacing is a foot or more.

But then, much of my growing has been experimental crosses and F2s. I never remove tillers, because I want to see what happens. I once had a plant with 6 tillers, and the thing produced 14 ears. Unfortunately, the kernals were too large for the "new" extra rows on the cobs. At milk stage the kernals were all squeezing each other, and exploded. It was a mess.

[JRinPA]

Well I did some thinning, where they seemed really tight or the stalk is too skinny. Some were pulled and some broke off. Some of the tassels are starting to drop pollen so tomorrow or the next day I'll catch and freeze some. With just two rows it will be easy to hand pollinate. I laid some ferts at the base of each plant and covered with compost and moved the drip tape right over top. It is dry here again. This corn is only about 5 ft. And I did find some side shoots to break off, but nothing like the usual.

A month or so back, I was asked for spacing advice and passed along 9" or so per row and told them 36" is standard between rows. They had one row planted, about 4" spacing. They took a bunch out, so now it is one long row with about 10-12" spacing I guess. I don't know what variety, probably burpee something, but some of those ears are huge and the stalks are about 7 ft tall. As long as they don't get a heavy wind in the next week they should be good but only about 2 doz plants. So then after telling them 9", I let this second block come up at 4" and never thinned plus it had no starter.
I seriously think that the corn does better for me when planted as twins, rather than allowed to grow at close spacing. With twins they seem to fend off more and take up more air outside the rows, and the roots interlock from the co-centers and get huge. With this tight spacing, the skinny ones I pulled out only had a rootball about the same as the spacing distance. In other words, 4" 4" 4" 4" rootballs instead of 2 intertwined 8", 2 intertwined 8", in the same 16" of space.

[JRinPA]

The neighbor's plot of corn was silver queen. They had some real big ears compared to mine. I'm not sure if they fertilized at all but they had a whole lot of sun.

I had to pick up and tie up this double row twice and had two very late hand pollination sessions. More than a week after pollen was gone, I stole pollen from the next plot and hand pollinated late cobs. It worked well to make cobs where they would have missed. That late fertilizer was very important, I think, with the stupid-close spacing I allowed to grow. Never before have I fertilized that late. I'm certainly glad I did, as I've been picking a half dozen or so daily for what seems a long, long time for one block. It just keeps going, and I don't want to freeze any. Tonight I picked about a dozen. Supper and breakfast. Looks like another dozen left of good ones for tomorrow, then some real stragglers and some second cobs. At this point I feel the socks are practically required, they work so well to keep the squirrels from tearing it up. I still haven't learned to use agribon on every seed bed, to keep rabbits off, but I am a true student of the socks.

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You can see both of these are complete hand pollination, silk snipped flush and immediately brushed with pollen, and probably again the next day. Nice full formation of kernels.

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[JRinPA]

My third block is in, back yard. Around VT or just before I hoed a trench between the double row, a few inches deep, and added a line of grass ferts and 10-10-10 mix. It came out really nice...debatable whether it should be a double row split wide with potatoes in the middle, or done like this with potatoes on one side after peas and corn on this side (had spring onions there but the spring peas clobbered them by reaching west).
I had kept the potatoes off the corn with rebar posts and green garden fence. The potatoes were huge until a week or so back; now they are died back some. It was almost all hand pollinated. Natural pollination is spotty with two rows, yet hand pollinating is simple with two rows. 16 and 18 kernel rows for the two I checked. No socks deployed as yet. It has been nice and wet this week and I think that makes the squirrels less interested, along with being September. But still, knock on wood.

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