How to Plant Sweet Corn

Posted on April 28, 2010 | Category: Gardening Trivia

Knowing when and how to plant corn is the key to producing a successful crop. There’s no rush to plant corn, so you can wait until your soil is at least 62 degrees Fahrenheit 3 inches down. The warmer your garden soil is the better because it will speed up the germination process and your corn will get off to a quick start and you will avoid any crop damage due to late frost.

Sweet corn in a home garden should be planted 6 to 8 inches apart in straight rows. The space between the rows depends on how you plan to cultivate your garden. If you use a tiller, then you will need about 30 inch spacing between each row of corn, but if you hand cultivate then the rows of corn can be planted closer together.

Corn and pole beans grow well together, the corn stalk provides the trellis for the pole beans to grow on and the pole beans add nitrogen to the soil for the corn. If you plan to companion plant your corn with beans, the corn needs to be planted 2 feet apart. Allow the corn to grow until it reaches 6 inches in height then plant your beans on each side of the corn, 8 inches away from the corn stalk.

Field corn stalks grow much larger than sweet corn stalks and so need a little more room to grow. Field corn should be planted 15 inches apart with rows spacing at about 40 inches apart. The planting depth of your corn depends on the time of planting and the garden soil moisture. If you grow corn in very early spring, plant sweet corn 1 ½ inches deep and plant field corn 2 inches deep. If you are planting later in the season, then plant 3 inches deep. If you follow these tips, you will be able to grow great corn with no problem.

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