How To Grow Corn in Your Backyard Garden?

Corn is more American than apple pie and it’s been cultivated in North American gardens for over 4,000 years. Sweet corn roasted on a grill and rolled in butter is one of those irreplaceable tastes of summer and nothing beats sweet corn straight out of the garden. We can even grow our own popcorn for healthy snacking or dent corn for the freshest, most flavorful grits or cornmeal you’ve ever tasted.

How to Grow Corn

Corn can’t compete with weeds. Before sowing seeds, remove weeds and add compost to enrich the garden soil. Plant the corn in blocks at least three rows wide, with a minimum row length of eight feet. Apply mulch to prevent weeds from sprouting. Corn needs about 1 inch of water a week, particularly when the stalks begin to tassel.

Water stress during pollination will result in ears with lots of missing kernels, so don’t skip watering your corn patch. Once seedlings germinate, thin to two seedlings per hill. When planting later in the season, bury seeds two inches deep to ensure it doesn’t dry out during germination.

Corn Harvesting

Three weeks after corn silks appear, start checking ears for peak ripeness. Pull back part of the husk and pierce a kernel with your thumbnail. If a milky liquid spurts out, the ears are at prime ripeness rush those ears to the table, refrigerator or freezer. Corn can be blanched and frozen, on or off the cob.

Ears on the same stalk usually ripen a few days apart. A completely dry silk or a yellow or faded-green sheath means the ear is past its prime. Leave ornamental corn and popcorn on the stalks to dry until the first hard frost. If the weather is cloudy and wet, cut and stack stalks in a cool, dry place until the corn dries.

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