Food Plots Darn corn

[TraumaSlave]

I can't get corn to grow in my plot for anything. 3 yrs ago I just tilled and planted. Nothing came up. 2 yrs ago, planted and fertilizer. Nothing. Last yr, lime.and fertilizer the summer B4 as per soil sample, plant 3-4 wks ago, and not a darned thing. Seed is from Co-op, silver queen. Grew soybeans, rape, and oats for late plot last yr and mowed it all down early spring this yr. I use a lawn aerator to make even rows of holes and put the seed about 1/4-1/2" deep, then cover. WTH? What am I doing wrong?

 

[smalljawbasser]

1" deep when soil temp is 60 or above. How much are you planting?

All gods creatures love to eat fresh corn shoots. 1 deer can wipe out a bunch of new shoots. If your plot isn't checked regularly, that might be the problem. Plant you a couple seeds at your house the same day you plant at the food plot, and when you see it poke it's head up go check your plot.

Wether it grows good or not, it should germinate and come up anyway.

 

[muddyboots]

It has been my experience corn is very hard to grow without a planter

 

[WG3]

Birds also like to pull corn shoots up, they got all of my dad's corn.

 

[hitek7]

It has been my experience corn is very hard to grow without a planter

We have not experienced this one bit. Been discing and broadcasting our for years with good results. Do I wish I had a planter, sure do! Think I would waste less seed.

If you are only 1/4-1/2" deep, something is probably eating the seed before sprouting.

 

[muddyboots]

It has been my experience corn is very hard to grow without a planter

We have not experienced this one bit. Been discing and broadcasting our for years with good results. Do I wish I had a planter, sure do! Think I would waste less seed.

If you are only 1/4-1/2" deep, something is probably eating the seed before sprouting.

Awesome. It has never worked for us by broadcasting.

 

[dirtyhands]

It has been my experience corn is very hard to grow without a planter

We have not experienced this one bit. Been discing and broadcasting our for years with good results. Do I wish I had a planter, sure do! Think I would waste less seed.

If you are only 1/4-1/2" deep, something is probably eating the seed before sprouting.

You've been broadcasting corn seed with success? What do you do after spreading it? Disc again? I planted 800 head at my house by hand for human consumption it was a pain in the butt!

 

[user 14220]

This topic has me stumped because last year I tossed out a bunch of corn to feed the turkeys close to our house. I did nothing to the hard soil the corn was tossed onto. But at least 50 plants started growing within 6 weeks. Let some grow to maturity and it tasted pretty good

 

[Vermin93]

This topic has me stumped because last year I tossed out a bunch of corn to feed the turkeys close to our house. I did nothing to the hard soil the corn was tossed onto. But at least 50 plants started growing within 6 weeks. Let some grow to maturity and it tasted pretty good

Lol, that's awesome. Some guys have all the luck.

 

[Hunter 257W]

I've broadcast corn several years now in food plots. I disk up the ground real good, broadcast seed then run the disk over it again with most of the angle taken out so I don't cover it too deep. For the price of a planter I can afford to waste a few seeds broadcasting for many many years.

 

[SMarshall]

Re: Darn corn
by Hunter 257W » 02 Jun 2016 18:00
I've broadcast corn several years now in food plots. I disk up the ground real good, broadcast seed then run the disk over it again with most of the angle taken out so I don't cover it too deep. For the price of a planter I can afford to waste a few seeds broadcasting for many many years.

This is my plan for corn this year. It is my first year planting it but from what I've heard it does pretty good like this.

Hunter 257W what do you do for weed control and when do you plant?

 

[Hunter 257W]

When I planted non roundup ready corn, I always mixed it with Pennington Seeds Spring/Summer deer mix. That consists of two kinds of vine soybeans, cowpeas, sorghum and sunflowers. All tall plants that do well at shading out the weeds. Some years though I did have a lot of weeds but deer like weeds too, especially fertilized and limed weeds. The last time I planted corn I used RR seed and mixed it with RR soybeans so I was able to get in and spray once they were up around 6 or 8 inches tall to keep a fairly clean plot. RR seed is nice but I think we over emphasis weed free food plots. To a point a few weeds might even be good if they are the right weeds. Now you don't want a whole field of pig weeds or Canadian thistles of course!

 

[Hunter 257W]

Oh as for when I plant. Never when I want to! Something always goes wrong and I'm always late. I've planted as late as the 7th of July. the way things are going this year may be like that too. I like to plant by the end of May if I can but you can get a good corn crop for deer with an early July planting date. We're not trying to get 300 bushels/acre here - just a decent amount of corn to feed varmints.

Another thing about planting dates is that once you get to this time of year a food plot is likely getting overgrown with weeds which makes it an ideal birthing place for fawns. I cringe when I drive into a field like that with a bush hog out of fear of killing a fawn. Also cleaning such places up to bare dirt limits the places where fawns can be hidden making them more likely to be found by coyotes. This is one reason why I sometimes wait until much later once I miss the ideal Spring planting window.

 

[SMarshall]

Thanks for the info. I've got the rest of my plot planted already and I'm planning to put my corn out in a week or so. I've already got my field down to the dirt and all I have to do before I plant is hook the disc up and run over it a couple more times. I'm planting the corn beside 1/2 acre of soybeans that has already been in the ground a couple of weeks. I'm not planting rr corn just regular old field corn. I could mix in some ground cover seed but I'm not sure if I need to since the corn will be so thick anyways.

 

[hitek7]

You've been broadcasting corn seed with success? What do you do after spreading it? Disc again? I planted 800 head at my house by hand for human consumption it was a pain in the butt!

Yes, for the past 4 years. We typically disc the seed in the ground. This is all dependent on how loose your soil is... Our soil is not very loose and is fairly rocky so the odds of getting them too deep is really not a concern. Our main concern is not getting them deep enough. We typically spray, plant, wait till the plants get 12" or so tall and spray again and let it grow

 

[muddyboots]

Wow. I've broadcast it twice with zero luck. I bought a 4 row jd planter for 400 dollars and cut it down to fit my tractor. It works great. I want a no till now. Save lots of time

 

[hitek7]

Wow. I've broadcast it twice with zero luck. I bought a 4 row jd planter for 400 dollars and cut it down to fit my tractor. It works great. I want a no till now. Save lots of time

If you find another please let me know, PLEASE! I would still love to have a planter.

 

[Devin2009]

I've planted corn twice this year. Not one plant has came up. Lots of work for nothing.

 

[SMarshall]

I'm planting my corn today. I'm going to disc, broadcast seed and fertilizer, then disc again, and then cultipack. Then pray for rain.


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[hitek7]

I'm planting my corn today. I'm going to disc, broadcast seed and fertilizer, then disc again, and then cultipack. Then pray for rain.


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Praying with you! Planted ours Friday and Sunday. It needs LOTS of rain!

 

[SKFOOTER]

For the first time in 3 years the crows have destroyed my two 1 1/2 acre plots by pulling up the sprouts to get to the kernels. :bash: Guess I should have mixed some turpentine with the seeds before planting.

 

[hitek7]

For the first time in 3 years the crows have destroyed my two 1 1/2 acre plots by pulling up the sprouts to get to the kernels. :bash: Guess I should have mixed some turpentine with the seeds before planting.

About the same here. What crows did not get, the deer chewed them down to the ground. Just not enough rain once they sprouted to shoot them up quick enough. Going to be a bad corn crop for us it looks like. Been a couple weeks since I have looked at it so checking it tomorrow. Hope something miraculous happened...