Denver Gardening Examiner

Corn Q-and-A: Tips on the crop here in Colorado

Diagram of corn sprout

Though I'd need to know a lot more about the environment you're growing the corn in, the amount of water you give them, whether you provide any poisons by way of fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides, how much you till in the aisles (if you till in the aisles), where on earth you are living (the Denver Examiner covers a very large area), where on the plant they are turning red and other information...

I can offer you directions on how corn should be grown and the conditions it will do best in.

Prepare a bed and two aisles with good tillage (so the soil has lots of surface area or aeration).  Tillage should go at least 6 inches deep, but deeper is better - we dig 12 to 24 inches deep.  Plant roots will go down dozens of feet, but most of their roots exist between 0 inches and 24 inches beneath the soil.

Divide the area into two aisles and one bed.  We use 6 feet widths for all because our tractor is 6 feet wide, but when hand digging, a minimum width for aisles would be 2 feet and the corn will require at least 2 feet of bed for its crown.  Plant the corn in a single row, or if using a wide bed (such as our 6 foot bed), in a triple row.  Corn likes density - if allowed, it will create a microclimate that is ideal for its growth.

Among the corn, plant beans, lettuce, spinach, squashes...whatever else you like to eat. The more biodiversity in your field, the better your yield.  Less disease, less predation, more food for you!  More biodiversity means less watering, too!  Don't worry about competition - you'll provide enough food for them through tillage.

Water to keep the soil moist 1 - 3 inches from the surface.  Till the aisles weekly, but if this is too hard to do, till at least every month.  In no case till less than 3 times during the growing season or else you will see significant reduction in yield. 

Tillage keeps the soil loose for the roots to penetrate, cuts the roots so the plant sends out small roots that eat better, and aerates to promote the microorganisms that produce the nutrients your plants eat.

Let the weeds grow.  More biodiversity is better.  The weeds are tasty for those creatures who would otherwise eat your plants.  They hold in water and feed your crops.  And, as mentioned in my previous posts, many of them are tasty!

Corn likes to be planted in warm soil.  Plant it late - in Colorado, which is not "corn country," we can't be greedy and try to get two or three crops in. 

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