Sweetcorn: Sowing the seeds

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Thursday 09 July, 2015 by Uncle Spike

Terry said to plant the seeds 6″ apart….

Yes, the advice from my all American farming friends in Colorado, who grow maize on an industrial scale, reckoned I usually planted simply too much seed for the stony soil consistency we have here. So I thought, what the heck, I had some spare time on day, so lets take him at his word and do this properly 🙂

Having already dug the soil over to a depth of 25cm (10″) three times in order to mix in the assorted ‘poo’ – of the chicken, goat and cow variety – out came the old metal rake, which I then used to create pretty little rectangles.

As daft as this might look, I did have a method in my madness; you see, the land I’m planting has a slight two-directional gradient, and with such porous soil, the challenge is ensuring the water and therefore nutrients don’t just end up at one end – easier said than done!

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Yes it was overkill, but sometimes one just has to do as one is told (even me), and so “every 6 inches” it was to be. Using a piece of a branch from a nectarine tree, I made shallow holes in the pre-watered planting rectangles, and popped one seed into each. Not quite the rough plough and scatter method most farms employ, but why not? 🙂

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And then we waited…

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A couple of weeks later and this was the picture. Most seeds had taken, and the spread  between plants was pretty even – job done (part one anyway).

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