To those of you who plant corn, esp FarmHunter
02-05-2003, 11:05 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Alexandria, Minnesota, USA
Posts: 1,079
To those of you who plant corn, esp FarmHunter
What kind of corn do you plant?
Do you have racoon problems?
Did I make the mistake in planting sweet corn?
I tried it 5 years ago and it was nibbled to the ground.......
Info on my username- Was in an investment club called buckig. Building Up Cash & Knowledge Invest Group. Club disbanded and I went on my own and came up with Buckmine. Didn't want anyone out to think I was selfish or crude........
Do you have racoon problems?
Did I make the mistake in planting sweet corn?
I tried it 5 years ago and it was nibbled to the ground.......
Info on my username- Was in an investment club called buckig. Building Up Cash & Knowledge Invest Group. Club disbanded and I went on my own and came up with Buckmine. Didn't want anyone out to think I was selfish or crude........
02-05-2003, 06:37 PM
#2
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ponce de Leon Florida USA
Posts: 10,079
RE: To those of you who plant corn, esp FarmHunter
You should plant some sort of field corn. Check with the local farm supply store to see if they will help recommend a type for your area. Everybody has coon trouble. Get a couple of live traps and set them with fried chicken as bait and see if you can lower the numbers. You also will have to plant enough acerage to supply the wild critters in addition to the deer.
02-05-2003, 07:50 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Ontario Canada
Posts: 2,059
RE: To those of you who plant corn, esp FarmHunter
Your local Co-op should be able to supply a field corn type for your heat units. It'll be cheaper than the sweet corn that you planted. If your sweet corn grew fully and set ears it doesn't sound bad that the deer ate it to the ground. If it was coons, you've got the opportunity for some exiting nighttime shooting.
Dan O.
Dan O.
02-06-2003, 07:45 AM
#4
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Bonnots Mill Missouri USA
Posts: 237
RE: To those of you who plant corn, esp FarmHunter
Do not plant sweet corn unless you personally want to harvest some of it for your own use. If you do, you better be prepare to electrical fence it off starting about 4" off the ground and up to 5' high. Field corn is the better option if your goal is to provide a winter food source. Coons bother it less, and generally it produces more.
If you had problems with it being "nibbled to the ground" before the ears were set, raccoons were not the likely culprets. More likely, crows, turkeys, and deer comsume the sprouting and growing corn at their preferred stages. How many acres did you plant? If you noticed, FarmHunter had fields of 5 acres or so if I can recall correctly. If you have only 1 acre or less and plant corn, the chances of getting that corn to maturity will probably be low in areas with a good deer, coon, and squirrel population unless it is somehow protected.
An alternate to corn, may be milo. There seem to be fewer animals that consume it in various growth stages and it still provides a good source of carbohydates for deer and game birds at maturity. In smaller foodplots, I seen individuals have better luck with it reaching maturity than corn in my neck of the woods. One down side is that it may not be as good in areas with deep snows.
greg
If you had problems with it being "nibbled to the ground" before the ears were set, raccoons were not the likely culprets. More likely, crows, turkeys, and deer comsume the sprouting and growing corn at their preferred stages. How many acres did you plant? If you noticed, FarmHunter had fields of 5 acres or so if I can recall correctly. If you have only 1 acre or less and plant corn, the chances of getting that corn to maturity will probably be low in areas with a good deer, coon, and squirrel population unless it is somehow protected.
An alternate to corn, may be milo. There seem to be fewer animals that consume it in various growth stages and it still provides a good source of carbohydates for deer and game birds at maturity. In smaller foodplots, I seen individuals have better luck with it reaching maturity than corn in my neck of the woods. One down side is that it may not be as good in areas with deep snows.
greg
02-06-2003, 08:29 PM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: cazenovia, NY USA
Posts: 2,973
RE: To those of you who plant corn, esp FarmHunter
Buckmine,
I appreciate that you must think I know what I'm doing planting corn. Truth is, I learned the important things through bad experiences, good advice, and experimenting.
First, the others are right, sweet corn is not as good for a winter food source for several reasons. It does attract animals all through its growth, matures too early, does not dry properly for winter, and does not stand up to wind/winter weather.
Go with a local corn from your co-op. If money was not a problem - I'd go with a good picking corn (bags run $60-$75 - 1 bag does 2-1/2 acres). Personally, we use silage corn, because its almost 1/2 the price - and we still get sufficient ear growth for the Nitrogen we can afford to put down. Silage corn also grows to around 8 ft - and provides excellent cover.
If you are planting corn you really need to put it in rough blocks of at least 2 acres. This is to insure decent cross polination and reduce animals eating it before its time. Long, skinny plots of corn alongside woods will be a disappointment - you'll be lucky to have any ears left going into winter if any make it through the fall.
As far as Raccoon Problems - I cannot say we've had a bad amount of them. The coons usually only really hit the corn bad when its in the milk stage, and after the first couple frosts. We have a decent coon population, but coon do not do near the damgage as birds, and squirrels in the fall. The other worst offender are GEESE, 2 weeks after planting. Geese will walk up and down the rows plucking the new shoots from the ground, and only eating the kernal, and leaving the shoot on the ground. A good size flock can wipe out a couple acres in a day or two! Watch out for them! Turkeys will too, but not as bad, they usually eat the whole shoot - and they are not as brave as geese.
Deer can really hit the new corn growth and will nibble the tops right through mid July - Generally deer will not completely ruin a stand because of the peculiar way corn grows. As long as the main stem is left in tact, and only the leaves are munched on - the corn will usually still ear out. Corn grows from the center up - by this I mean - when corn is knee high, the section of the plant that will become the ears are just coming out of the ground at that point, the tassels will break the ground when the plant is close to waist high. Its at this point that corn grows REALLY FAST. The leaves become tough, and the deer will all but stop eating it until the corn ear has developed in mid August. Even then the majority of the plants will make it.
I plan to start a post soon covering planting aspects, cultivating, weed prevention, etc soon. I'll be looking for some nuggets of information, and I hope others will post too. Look for it soon -
I appreciate that you must think I know what I'm doing planting corn. Truth is, I learned the important things through bad experiences, good advice, and experimenting.
First, the others are right, sweet corn is not as good for a winter food source for several reasons. It does attract animals all through its growth, matures too early, does not dry properly for winter, and does not stand up to wind/winter weather.
Go with a local corn from your co-op. If money was not a problem - I'd go with a good picking corn (bags run $60-$75 - 1 bag does 2-1/2 acres). Personally, we use silage corn, because its almost 1/2 the price - and we still get sufficient ear growth for the Nitrogen we can afford to put down. Silage corn also grows to around 8 ft - and provides excellent cover.
If you are planting corn you really need to put it in rough blocks of at least 2 acres. This is to insure decent cross polination and reduce animals eating it before its time. Long, skinny plots of corn alongside woods will be a disappointment - you'll be lucky to have any ears left going into winter if any make it through the fall.
As far as Raccoon Problems - I cannot say we've had a bad amount of them. The coons usually only really hit the corn bad when its in the milk stage, and after the first couple frosts. We have a decent coon population, but coon do not do near the damgage as birds, and squirrels in the fall. The other worst offender are GEESE, 2 weeks after planting. Geese will walk up and down the rows plucking the new shoots from the ground, and only eating the kernal, and leaving the shoot on the ground. A good size flock can wipe out a couple acres in a day or two! Watch out for them! Turkeys will too, but not as bad, they usually eat the whole shoot - and they are not as brave as geese.
Deer can really hit the new corn growth and will nibble the tops right through mid July - Generally deer will not completely ruin a stand because of the peculiar way corn grows. As long as the main stem is left in tact, and only the leaves are munched on - the corn will usually still ear out. Corn grows from the center up - by this I mean - when corn is knee high, the section of the plant that will become the ears are just coming out of the ground at that point, the tassels will break the ground when the plant is close to waist high. Its at this point that corn grows REALLY FAST. The leaves become tough, and the deer will all but stop eating it until the corn ear has developed in mid August. Even then the majority of the plants will make it.
I plan to start a post soon covering planting aspects, cultivating, weed prevention, etc soon. I'll be looking for some nuggets of information, and I hope others will post too. Look for it soon -
02-07-2003, 07:10 AM
#6
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Munising MI
Posts: 501
RE: To those of you who plant corn, esp FarmHunter
Farm Hunter,
Really appreciate the insight. What about ph levels, planting methods, and soil types. I have a site that may inspire me to inlarge it to roughly 3 acres if sometime down the road I could possibly plant some corn as a late fall food source. The site would be almost round, is my central food plot, with a sandy loam soil, and with the support of several acres of good clover plots around it, maybe it would work. If it worked, it would be an unbelievable draw for the hunting season, and would be adjacent to the most major portion of the migration routes through the property.
Can you plant clover in it as well? so that when the deer come back in the spring the clover is available?
Thanks for the info.
Jeff...U.P. of Michigan
Really appreciate the insight. What about ph levels, planting methods, and soil types. I have a site that may inspire me to inlarge it to roughly 3 acres if sometime down the road I could possibly plant some corn as a late fall food source. The site would be almost round, is my central food plot, with a sandy loam soil, and with the support of several acres of good clover plots around it, maybe it would work. If it worked, it would be an unbelievable draw for the hunting season, and would be adjacent to the most major portion of the migration routes through the property.
Can you plant clover in it as well? so that when the deer come back in the spring the clover is available?
Thanks for the info.
Jeff...U.P. of Michigan
02-07-2003, 10:43 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: cazenovia, NY USA
Posts: 2,973
RE: To those of you who plant corn, esp FarmHunter
Jeff -
3 acres is big enough. Also, I was surprised when I
learned about Ph and Corn. You would like the soil to be slightly
acidic - 6.5Ph in a perfect world, but corn will grow well down to
5.5Ph, and I've done it with success several times. The key is
making sure you have enough Nitrogen available, at the right time.
As far as clover between the rows - Its possible but probably not the best way. Corn requires either cultivation (manual weeding) or spraying for weed control at some point. I prefer the cultivation for food plots actually because you can seed "something" at the last
cultivation (mid July in my area), spraying, usally makes it
tough to interseed other crops. Some people broadcast soybeans,
or climbing beans at last cutivation - and this can work well.
Generally perennial clover grows too slow to plant at last cultivation. The corn shades the plot too much, and the clover that does establish is too sparce to compete with the weeds that will definitely come the following spring. Annual clovers can work OK, but I've never tried them. I have used beans and peas, mixed in the corn planter at planting, so I could still cultivate, and that worked good, but the deer ate most of the plants before they got mature - even in the 5 acre planting I did last year. I've also used rye, broadcast over the corn at last cultivation (this is also the time you should lay down Nitrogen for ear growth- I would not do this unless you have very high N levels, as the rye competes directly with the corn - especially when its earing out. Keep in mind, that the rye will be too mature for a fall plot when planted this way - and could be a waste of time/money - depending on your plan.
Preferably, I would plant the 3 acre section, in corn - except for a 1/2 -1 acre plot of clover in the middle of the corn, ot at least extending into it. The weeds that grow in with corn, encourage bedding by deer during the summer - as they feed on the clover plot. A sprayed corn feild, generally will not get as much bedding activity from deer.
I Promise - I'll start the corn post this weekend - I'll list the top 5 most important things to consider when planting corn, plus tips, and questions I have.
3 acres is big enough. Also, I was surprised when I
learned about Ph and Corn. You would like the soil to be slightly
acidic - 6.5Ph in a perfect world, but corn will grow well down to
5.5Ph, and I've done it with success several times. The key is
making sure you have enough Nitrogen available, at the right time.
As far as clover between the rows - Its possible but probably not the best way. Corn requires either cultivation (manual weeding) or spraying for weed control at some point. I prefer the cultivation for food plots actually because you can seed "something" at the last
cultivation (mid July in my area), spraying, usally makes it
tough to interseed other crops. Some people broadcast soybeans,
or climbing beans at last cutivation - and this can work well.
Generally perennial clover grows too slow to plant at last cultivation. The corn shades the plot too much, and the clover that does establish is too sparce to compete with the weeds that will definitely come the following spring. Annual clovers can work OK, but I've never tried them. I have used beans and peas, mixed in the corn planter at planting, so I could still cultivate, and that worked good, but the deer ate most of the plants before they got mature - even in the 5 acre planting I did last year. I've also used rye, broadcast over the corn at last cultivation (this is also the time you should lay down Nitrogen for ear growth- I would not do this unless you have very high N levels, as the rye competes directly with the corn - especially when its earing out. Keep in mind, that the rye will be too mature for a fall plot when planted this way - and could be a waste of time/money - depending on your plan.
Preferably, I would plant the 3 acre section, in corn - except for a 1/2 -1 acre plot of clover in the middle of the corn, ot at least extending into it. The weeds that grow in with corn, encourage bedding by deer during the summer - as they feed on the clover plot. A sprayed corn feild, generally will not get as much bedding activity from deer.
I Promise - I'll start the corn post this weekend - I'll list the top 5 most important things to consider when planting corn, plus tips, and questions I have.
