How to Grow 64 Stalks of Corn in a 4x4 Foot Space: Principles, Planting, Watering & Fertilizing

welcome to the rusted garden homestead today I'm going to show you how to plant sixty-four stalks of corn in a 4 foot by 4 foot space now growing in raised beds growing corn into space like this is very different than growing in growing them out in the field where spacing might be 12 inches apart rows could be 2 feet apart you could do double rows all that kind of stuff but out in the field you can't tend to the needs of the plants like you can here so we're gonna plant much more closely now I'm spacing the corn seeds the kernels every 4 inches apart so I have 8 rows with 8 seeds in it we have 64 seeds that really grow in this small space now you want to loosen the soil to about depth of 10 inches you can add in manures or compost if you know that they're fully broken down as I've mentioned in other videos if you're using the granular fertilizer throw down three or four handfuls and here mix it in when you're loosening up the soil I've already have I already have a bed that's pretty well nourished you know from last year but we get a top justice when we're done so we have the corn seed spaced four inches apart and we're going to press them down one inch to 1/2 inch deep you really do want to grow corn straight in the soil you could see it start it but it grows best this way and the whole key to it really is that it's not going to germinate quickly or well until the soil temperatures get up to 65 degrees where it's June first here our temperatures have warmed up the soil has warmed up it's a perfect time to really plant your corn you could do it in the middle of May here in Maryland zone 7 but June is perfectly fine I'm growing in the early golden Bantam variety it's a yellow corn and the stalks ready to get about 5 to 6 feet tall alright so let me finish putting in the seeds again 1 inch deep to 1/2 inch deep so all the seeds have been pushed down to about an inch inch and a half again we're four inches apart three inches apart there's different ways you can grow corn if you look on different extensions in different states you can do a hilling method where you plant the 5-7 seeds in a hill three inches apart the hills go 12 inches apart at all that's all great you can pick those different things I like a 4 foot by 4 foot space because of this reason when you ever yeah well you've eaten corn but when you shuck a corn you see all those silks on the top usually that they're dried out but every kernel of corn has a silk that comes out the top and then on the top of a corn stalk when it gets to be 5 6 feet all starts producing the stalk at the top that's the pollen the pollen has to drop off of that land on all of those silks to pollinate the corn so that you get a ear of corn that has full kernels if you've ever gotten like an ear of corn where it's just missing the kernels it's because it wasn't fully pollinated so this square is really important we're packing in the plants sixty-four plants when they get the size the tassel no I actually forget the technical name but the growth on the top of the corn is going to come out it's gonna drop pollen now when you have a square when the wind blows this way pollen will fall when the wind blows this way pollen will fall this square is a perfect size to make sure all of your corn gets fertilized so that's why I recommend doing a square and not just a long row of two straight down if we did that all the way down you know say three beds and the wind blows this way all the pollen is gonna blow away from the corn so it's not gonna get pollinated when you have it mixed at the corn in the middle wind blows this way will pollinate over here etc so you get the idea now corns related to grass if you didn't know that corn needs nitrogen needs the other fertilizers but you don't have to over worry about really fertilizing corn it grows really really well you need to keep the moisture up that's something we can do here we can give them water soluble fertilizer fish emulsion we can do that here all in this small space we can give them everything they need to grow to size so I've put in the corn to depth and I'm just going to close it up and then I'm going to show you what I put on top of the soil so again remember we are able to manage this space so we are going to be planting much more closely closely together than you might do in the field so all the work to prep the soil is going to be done now you can take any granular fertilizer organic and just scattered around that's gonna be about four handfuls that's great for a top dressing I'd like to do the corn top dressing now because when the corn is about this tall if I'm going to top dress I don't want to be throwing all this granular fertilizer into the the corn basically and it's going to be really dense in here so I'm getting everything down now perfectly fine just a couple handfuls of your organic fertilizer across the top and then just rub it in that will break down and get to the plants over the season I'm also going to put down if you have it a wonderful horse manure this is two years old fully broken down and I'm going to put about a quarter an inch across the top of this now again the whole idea is that we can plant much more closely together because we can really take care of this space corns going to need at least an inch of water every week till it's about two feet tall if you want to subscribe I'll show you how I take care of this over the season the end of the video will water everything in so the corn will put out the silks out the sides that's the ear of corn at you eat when it plants about five or six feet tall it is a tassel that forms up high that will drop the pollen the pollen lands on the silks your corn gets fertilized all the way through all the kernels in each ear that's the whole principle like I said around doing a square you want that pollen to blow all around and get on all of the silks alright let me put down the compost and then we'll get to watering now I often get asked how often do you water garden and the real answer is when it needs it how much is an inch of water that varies based on how quickly the water comes out of your hose the easiest way to figure it out and I'll actually link a video that I did specifically on watering is to fill a container and you would put a mark down at the bottom that's one inch and kind of time how long this is going when that water fills up to one inch you've put one inch of water into a space like that so that was about an inch and you just soak in the area for the same amount of time and that applies one inch of water to your garden plants so corn you're gonna want to water this again I want to stress we are putting a lot of plants into one space sixty-four plants you're going to want to water this every week till the corns about 12 inches high giving it one inch of water when it's bigger than have a bigger root system it can get by with less water we're gonna put in a water-soluble feed maybe in July when the corn is larger but the whole trick to corn is setting it up with the organic matter and fertilizer that it needs at the beginning just lots of water and your corn will do really well please subscribe to my channel I'll show you how I take care of the corn and all the plants in my garden and please check out my seed shop at the Rusted garden com thanks for watching

Channel: Gary Pilarchik (The Rusted Garden)

Views: 90,546

Keywords: Vegetable, Gardening, Organic, Homesteading, sustainable, off grid

Id: MdjODHcPjqA

Length: 7min 46sec (466 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 01 2020