[Market-farming] Corn planting, (was Deer Fencing/Crows/Geese ie PESTS)
Pam Twin Oaks
pam at twinoaks.org
Sun May 31 10:05:40 EDT 2009
Yes, We've planted strips of sweet corn 4 rows wide and it worked.
To keep crows off we put ropes on stakes over the rows. Actually we now sow
almost all our corn by hand - we put up ropes/strings, make furrows, flood
them with water, then seed. This gives enough water to germinate the seed
and get it up an inch or so. Even with tractor seeding, we would put ropes
up afterwards, over the rows, to keep the crows off. Helps the crew see
where the row is, if it's weedy when it's time to hoe, too.
For our first corn planting of the year, on the day we sow outdoors, we also
sow some styrofoam speedling flats for gap-filling later. We use the 200
cell flats - the cells are about an inch on a side, maybe less. We water and
stack the flats overnight, then next day float them outdoors in a tank of
water until we transplant. It means we don't have to handwater them - we
just leave then floating the whole time. I believe it's important to
transplant before the plants get more than 2" tall, as the tap-root starts
to grow and after that the plants don't transplant so well. If anyone knows
the exact details, or thinks differently, please speak up. I have no
experience of testing out this belief!
Pam, Twin Oaks, central Virginia, zone 7
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