Gardener looks back on sweet corn success Great care in crop bears nutritious rewards

The sound of cornhusks rustling in the autumn breeze is as sure a sign of winter’s coming as the sight of Canada geese flying in formation overhead. Corn is among the first victims of fall frost. When its papery, brown leaves hang from sturdy, hollow stalks, it is as though a clear warning of winter has sounded.

Corn is a heat-loving plant. This year, our particularly hot, dry summer yielded some of the best corn some gardeners have ever grown. Although growing corn is a bit intimidating to some, it is by no means difficult. Selecting a variety to grow is probably the most difficult task. So many tempting sweet corn varieties are available: yellow, white, bicolor … sweet, extra-sweet, buttery. The combinations seem endless.

Corn is a tender annual that requires full sun, deep, well-drained loamy soil and a slightly alkaline pH of 6.0-7.0. It should be sown only after the danger of springtime temperatures dipping below 65 degrees F. has passed.

Corn is a relatively heavy feeder. While many gardeners side-dress their plants with 10-10-10 synthetic fertilizer when they reach about 12 to 18 inches in height, others use natural amendments such as compost, manure tea, bone meal and dehydrated manure to feed their corn plants.

“I heard that if you don’t have room to grow at least four rows of corn, you shouldn’t even try,” one reader wrote earlier this summer. “Why is that?”

Unfortunately, there is truth to that statement, but don’t let it completely dampen your attempts. Gardening experts recommend planting corn in four short rows approximately 18 inches apart rather than one or two long rows. Planting in “blocks” will generally yield a greater number and higher-quality ears. Here’s why: Corn is wind-pollinated and in order for pollination to occur, pollen must be successfully transferred from the flower of one corn plant to another. Without good pollination, the kernels of the ear won’t reach their plumpest potential.

A continuous harvest of corn can be reaped over the summer if seed of the same variety is successively planted every two weeks or so over the summer. Alternatively, early, mid- and late-season bearing varieties may be selected and sown early in the growing season. Corn that matures in fall is perhaps the sweetest since cool nights in autumn increase the sugar content of the ears.

Over thousands of years, corn has been a staple crop of many cultures. Corn is a nutritious, starchy vegetable – one of the most widely grown crops in this country – that has its place in the diets of humans and animals alike. Sweet corn, popcorn, cattle corn and even ornamental corn are all grown in essentially the same way. Sweet corn is harvested fresh, while other types of corn are allowed to fully ripen or even dry on the stalk.

No corn from the supermarket can even compare to the sweet, tender perfection of home-grown corn. The plump, golden-yellow kernels of our corn drenched in butter and gently seasoned with salt and pepper are a bit of summertime heaven that are all but a memory now.

When next summer rolls around and those swollen ears point upward and all but defy picking, I’ll hear my neighbor say it again: “Put the water on to boil, then go out and pick the corn.”

Diana George Chapin is the NEWS garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, RR1, Box 2120, Montville 04941, or e-mail them to dianagc@ctel.net. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.