Here’s a place for corn reports.
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My earliest planting was a mix of saved seeds from last year and a handful of other open-pollinated sweet corn. I may have erred and planted too early. Not because the ground is too cold, but because skunk tillage season hasn’t quite ended, so emerging plants have been dug up. I’ll see what I have in another week or so and replant as needed.
I planted on a 6”x8” grid. I intended to plant rows of 8 of each seed type so that I could keep track of maternal lines. However, I kicked my paper with the nicely laid-out seed and scrambled that plan.
I did interplant between some spinach and celery, which will be finishing up before too much longer.
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Wife got me a bunch of corn for Christmas to try this year. Some of the corn recommends planting something like 4 inches deep 4 weeks before last frost iirc. I know that’s how some native tribes did it traditionally but I’m not that daring, been thinking maybe 2 inches at 2 weeks tho. Has anyone done this?
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Not sure about the timing, but I do have success planting deep. Four years ago most of the corn we planted was pulled up as seedlings by crows. The next year I planted flour corn 6" deep and that worked great-- by the time it popped up, crows couldn’t pull it out.
Couple years ago then started planting the sweet corn deep too (Astronomy D), and that worked fine too.
Looking forward to hearing about your results 
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I did test 12 inches. Got maybe 1 plant out of 10 and they were late emerging. 6 inches was the sweet spot, where most emerged. This was with standard sweet corn.
I’m sure the 12 - 18 inch depth would work for corn bred to this process.
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That’s what fascinates me the most, that there is potentially corn bred to be planted in the fall right after harvest. Definitely something i plan on experimenting with
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The way our weather is here, it woukd probably try to sprout in December, just before the real cold hits. It would need an environment that stays predictably cold and doesn’t have a very wet winter.
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I never heard of planting at such a great depth! In many soils you’d be in the subsoil if you plant deeper than 8 inches. I have been planting at two inches and it seems to be mostly crow resistant but I think they still got a few. I will start experimenting with slightly deeper planting. Is there a benefit to planting deeper than 4 inches?
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Yeah I know of some Hopi farmers that plant about a foot deep, but they’re planting their own ancestral landraces so they’re inherently bred for that specific depth. It helps that the typical soil type there is more sandy in texture when worked.
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Yeah, I got stubborn after watching a documentary where the guy said “No other corn in the world can be planted like this” so I set out to prove him wrong. Succeeded, in a sense.
They gauge the depth by the growth of certain plants, between 10 and 18 inches depending on the water levels in their sandy soil. The drier the soil, the deeper they go.
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As I said, the sweet spot was about six inches, but most germinated. The deeper you go the longer they will take to emerge, but when they do you’ll have really strong plants and you won’t have to worry so much about temperature fluctuations.
4 inches should be more than sufficient. When growing up, Dad did between 4 and 6 inches (the depth of the spading fork) and it worked well.
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Im way down in Arizona, I’ve planted 8 inches deep, where the moisture horizon was in the sand, and the corn grew marvelously. But, it was Hopi Blue and the Pima 60 day corn seed from Native Seed SEARCH. BUT, then sweet corn was there too and those three mixed. I still have the seed and haven’t regrown it, its from 2019. The mix is two flour corns with a sweet corn, didnt eat any just saved the seed. Its was before covid, and before I read Joseph’s book.
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This year i planted an heirloom sweet corn originally for containers, 3-5 feet tall stalks and with GTS sweet corn mix. Then i put in mixed zuchini starts and will plant pole beans by Monday. With the corn up, the beans should be able to climb as soon as they can. Inside the greenhouse and on native sandy soil that had woodchip compost and horse manure applied two years ago. Hoping to get some corn to taste and then some seeds.
Depending on your goals, go ahead and plant it out. Sort out shriveled kernels (sweet corn) to throw into a sweet corn grex, and let the blue (flint) and 60 day (flint/flour) stay mixed up. Corn seed isn’t known for long keeping, but I’ve had decent germination from 4 and 5 year old seed.
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Im gonna try planting the mix this fall, for monsoon season, in Arizona.
I’m doing two groups, sweet from the gts mix with two other varieties, and six varieties of mixed popcorn, red, white, blue, yellow, purple. They’re separated by about 100 feet east to west, and the prevailing winds are north and south. 6 x 10 inch grid, approximately.
Sweet is already planted at about six inches down. I’ll start planting the popcorn next week, if the wind ever settles down.
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It’s still early to plant here in our cool spring maritime soils, but I recently selected seed from my best ears from last year. This will be my third year growing Painted Mountain flour corn. Last year I shared seed with a friend and we traded seed this winter. I’m adding in a few seeds from interesting varieties I collected at various seed swap events this winter, including some Hopi turquoise that my same friend grew two years ago, but will keep the population mostly centered in the Painted Mountain genetics for now. It’s the first landrace/grex style population I grew and what sent me down this rabbit hole, so I have a soft spot for it. I love how opening every ear is like unwrapping a gift/work of art. Looking forward to what new re-combinations show up this year!
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Those are so beautiful! Just like glistening jewels, only better, because I bet they will taste yummy, as well!
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