Sweet corn grown in lawn

An amazing and audacious experiement, growing sweet corn in lawn.

My neighbour, who has the run off where I plant a crop of sweet corn every season, has finally decided at 93 that it is time he moved in to a rest home. The house is going on the market. No growing in his garden this year.

My existing raised gardens are fully at present.

So, I have grown sweet corn seedlings and planted them into the lawn.

First I scalped the grass with the lawn mower. I dug a slit into the soil, like planters do when planting pine trees, and placed the SC seedlings into the slit and then closed it back up.

The soil is loamy and because it was undisturbed lawn, has good structure. The soil should be fertile and have enough nutrients in it.

It may need to be irrigated more regularly than in a garden but I can take care of that.

Anyone have any comments or advice?

Rob

Reply to
George
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Would have been a worthwhile post if you showed pictures, otherwise...

Reply to
Brooklyn1

It's called pasture cropping. It can be very useful if you have stock as you have the option of taking a harvest or giving it to the stock depending on how the season goes. I haven't heard of it being done with corn though. I suspect you will get some competition in your case so the corn (which is a heavy feeder) may not be luxurious but still I would be interested to know how it turns out.

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

Does your neighbor mind, or are you trespassing? No mention of PERMISSION being given.

Reply to
Pico Rico

You sure can perceive the most important aspect of any post, your steel-trap mind gets right to the relevant point every time. As well as the key legal and moral issues of our times do you have any wisdom to share over topics such as soil structure, root competition, interplanting, irrigation, land use or nutrition of annuals and perenials?

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

Well, if permission was not granted by Roy to use his gardens for growing, the alternative is that I simply marched over there every summer, planted a crop, watched it grow, watered it and harvested it.

Which of these do you think is most feasible?

I don't need permission to plant corn in my lawn (except agreement from my wife - which was given). I did consult myself about planting in my lawn and naturally I agreed with myself.

rob

Reply to
George

Well rob-george, that explains it. Your first post was not at all clear. Thanks for the follow up.

Reply to
Pico Rico

I thought sweet corn was one of those plants that don't transplant well as seedlings, but if you've done it before, I guess it will be OK. Corn also requires a lot of water while growing and that will accelerate lawn growth. How will you keep the lawn grass from choking out the plants?

gloria p

Reply to
gloria.p

The corn should soon rise above the grass so there won't be much sun competion but you would expect some root competion as corn is also shallow rooted.

D
Reply to
David Hare-Scott

It was quite clear.

Reply to
FarmI

to most people but some found it a little ambiguous. Made sense in my mind as I wrote it, but that doesn't necessarily indicate very much.

rob

Reply to
George

I know a few gardeners who transplant corn into their garden and they don't seem to have a problem. But then I am not a corn expert and it may not normally transplant well.

I think I will need to monitor the grass growth through the rest of spring and see how things go. If a problem I will need to chop it or mulch it.

Watering is the main obstacle noted and I will cater for that as well as ensure a steady supply of nitrogen.

rob

Reply to
George

:-)) Yes, I know what you mean. I initially wondered why you mentioned your neighbour getting the benefit of your run off, but once you mentioned that he was old and going into care and wouldn't be gardening this year, I figured out that you must have been feeling some sympathy for a fellow gardener having to give up his garden. How far off the mark am I?

Reply to
FarmI

Now I understood it that he had permission to garden in his neighbor's yard, and no longer has that permission, and apparently the old man had not been gardening for some time. So, you see the ambiguity yourself.

anyway, the second post cleared up the confusion some of us had, and now my interest about the real subject at hand is piqued.

Reply to
Pico Rico

What would that be, piqueo-rico?

Reply to
Brooklyn1

HA! Actually, I don't know why, the first question that comes to mind is how big is the lawn area devoted to the corn test?

Reply to
Pico Rico

I've never tried that, but I know that farmers put a lot of effort (and chemicals) into keeping grass out of their corn fields. I don't know if it is because the grass would interfere with their harvesters, or would compete for nutrients in the soil. I think corn is a crop that requires a lot of nutrients; I fertilize mine heavily. Now I just need something to dissuade the racoons from eating my corn before it is ripe.

Reply to
Notat Home

I know that corn has very deep roots so needs to be planted in deeply tilled soil... I suspect planting corn in a compacted lawn wouldn't yield much of a crop.

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Reply to
Brooklyn1

that is a significant point. Exactly what 'compacted soil' amounts to I am not sure. It may describe my lawn. The soil itself has good structure and a good foot or more of nice loam. It is actually good soil. The lawn has not been disturbed for several decades and has a good number of earth worms. As far as lawn grown soil, it can't get much better.

In other words, I am making an assumption that if I water it properly and give it enough nutrition it should be ok. In reality no one can quite guess how it will turn out.

rob

Reply to
George

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