How to Grow Corn on the Cob,planting growing corn,how to sow corngrowing corn vegetable garden You can grow your own sweet corn or learn how to grow corn on the cob ,if you have a sunny location and enough area to plant. There is nothing that heralds summer more than corn on the cob, especially if its been soaked and steamed on the grill with the husk still on the corn. It makes you hungry just thinking about it, then it may be easy to learn how to grow corn on the cob. It's however a bit more tricky to get good corn but well worth the effort once you taste the sweetness of home grown corn.  The Best Soil for Planting Sweet corn loves a well-composted soil and lots of sunshine. It takes between 65 to 95 days to mature and requires warm soil to germinate.If you want to get a head start for your corn varieties,you can warm the soil more rapidly. Black absorbs the rays of the sun. Lay black plastic over the area you plan to grow the sweet corn. After a few days in the sun, you can plant the seed and keep the area covered until the seed germinates.As you learn the tricks on how to grow corn on the cob, you need to plant at least 4-four foot rows of corn to get good pollination. The rows require 3 feet of spacing between them and the seeds should be planted spaced at four to six inch intervals. Watering corn Planting corn cob needs moisture to germinate. Make sure that you water it well after you plant. Keep the soil moist by watering again in two to four days if there's been no rain. Too much water for the seed however, is as bad as too little and the seed has the potential of rotting in the ground. Once the plants are established you need to water frequently and even more once the plant produces ears with tassels. Once this occurs you need to water at least one inch every week.Corn is not a drought resistant plant, so keep it watered. Make sure your soil has adequate drainage by mixing liberal amounts of organic material into the soil. This is especially important for those areas where the soil is clay or sand.
Pests and Preventing methods Knowing how to grow corn on the Cob require remembering that the biggest problem to most sweet corn from pests comes once the ear forms and tassels. Corn earworms and silkworms often attack the ear and munch on it long before you get the opportunity to have your first bite. While commercial insecticide, like Sevin, works well to eradicate the problem when you dust with it or apply it to the silk, many organic farmers like to control the earworms by applying a few drops of mineral oil on the silk. In a small garden this is easily done and it suffocates any earworms on the corn. It's far more difficult if you have acre after acre of sweet corn. Deer are also munchers that love the corn as well as you do. Aside from an electric fence, there are few effective methods to keep the deer from the ear. Just like birds, such as the blue jay, when they see the snack, they go whack. Okay, so that's not good rap, but it makes a point. These types of pests are difficult to control, but very beautiful. Harvesting and Storing sweet corn If you have the garden close to the house, you can harvest corn cob right before you serve it. You can tell when the ears are ready to pick by the color of the silk. Once it dries and turns dark brown, the ears are ready. If you aren't sure, you can peel a bit of the leaf back and see if the ear is filled and ripe. If not, pull the leaf back over the exposed area and tie a twist lock to hold it shut. To take the ears off the plant, hold the cornstalk in one hand and the ear in the other. Pull the ear down as you twist and it should break away from the plant. If you want to use the corn for winter consumption there are several ways.Some people can it. One option is to cook more sweet corn for dinner than you plan to use. Keep the unused corn in the hot water until after dinner, then cut the corn from the ear, put it in a plastic bag and freeze it. You'll pack away a few meals at a time this way and it won't be as difficult of a job. You can also simply blanch the whole ear and freeze.Growing corn may present a challenge to the new gardener, but the results are worth the efforts when you learn how to grow corn on the cob.
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