Lawnfarmer - In my book corn is the most fickle and difficult (read expensive) plot to do well. I've posted on the topic here alot as I was learning to get a good stand, and know where you are coming from. I'm sure we'll talk alot about it in the late winter on this board again, but a quick synopsis - corn will grow in soil as low as 5.5 Ph. The better the Ph, the better the crop (and the more weeds to deal with). My Ph was 5.1 - 6.2 in different sections of the field. The really acidic land, did not grow corn very well, it ears out but the are small, and the plants only get 4-5 ft tall. Int he better sections of the field, it gre to 8 ft tall. We try to get ours planted in Central NY by the 1st week in June, and after May 20th. This was our third year of planting corn (the first was a disaster - each year has gotten better as we learned more). If you cannot spray, you almost must cultivate two or three times before the corn gets to high to work. Corn requires good P&K levels - and HIGH amounts of Nitrogen to ear out. The more Nitrogen, the better the ear crop will be. At planting this year, we banded in 150 lb/acre 15-15-15 and hit the plot with 170 lb/acre of Urea (46-0-0) 2nd week of July.
We plant insulage corn becuase its cheaper ($45.00/bag - plants 2-3 acres), but it should be a cow corn. Picking corn is probably best though it doesn't grow as tall.
If your corn stopped at 2-3 ft, along with no rain, the primary problem was likely Nitrogen and/or Phosphorus was lacking. A soil test will tell you how much N to put down, put it down some at planting and the rest at 6 leaves (knee high). You put the majority of the N down later, because the corn cannot use it much until that point, and by delaying N application, the weeds do not get the benefit of it early on. If you can spray, its not as big a deal to not delay N application.
Good luck, lets discuss corn in detail in the late winter.
Edited by - farm hunter on 10/31/2002 21:37:22