Healthy soil and regular fertilization with nitrogen are critical to growing corn successfully in California home gardens. The information and tips below are intended to supplement the core information about soil and fertilization provided in “Soil Needs/Tips” in the GardenZeus section “Getting Started,” and “Nutrient/Amendment/Fertilization Needs/Tips” in the GardenZeus section “Planting and Maintaining” for your […]

The Three Sisters is a traditional Native American agricultural grouping that includes corn, beans, and squash, with corn providing a natural trellis for beans and vining squash, beans fixing soil nitrogen theoretically to the benefit of all three crops, and squash providing a living mulch with large leaves that cool the soil and discourage weeds. The Three Sisters […]

The Three Sisters is a traditional Native American agricultural grouping that includes corn, beans, and squash, with corn providing a natural trellis for beans and vining squash, beans fixing soil nitrogen theoretically to the benefit of all three crops, and squash providing a living mulch with large leaves that protect the soil and discourage weeds. The Three Sisters […]

The Three Sisters is a traditional Native American agricultural grouping that includes corn, beans, and squash, with corn providing a natural trellis for beans and vining squash, beans fixing soil nitrogen theoretically to the benefit of all three crops, and squash providing a living mulch with large leaves that cool the soil and discourage weeds. While a […]

The Three Sisters is a traditional Native American agricultural grouping that includes corn, beans, and squash, with corn providing a natural trellis for beans and vining squash, beans fixing soil nitrogen theoretically to the benefit of all three crops, and squash providing a living mulch with large leaves that cool the soil and discourage weeds. The Three […]

The Three Sisters is a traditional Native American agricultural grouping that includes corn, beans, and squash, with corn providing a natural trellis for beans and vining squash, beans fixing soil nitrogen theoretically to the benefit of all three crops, and squash providing a living mulch with large leaves that cool the soil and discourage weeds. The Three […]

Have you spent months carefully attending to corn in your garden for little or no yield, or watched corn ears grow over weeks to be disappointed by scattered kernels per ear at harvest? If so, you’re not alone. Corn is a demanding vegetable, with a long list of needs for successful harvest of kernel-filled ears. […]

Corn is a space-hog in proportion to the amount of food it produces. Planting space is more often a limiting factor than a gardener’s appetite when growing corn in the home garden. Each sweet-corn plant will produce only one or two ears (often one ear for early varieties and two ears for late varieties). For […]

GardenZeus expert Darren Butler generally recommends that home gardeners NOT grow supersweet corn varieties, which may produce plants that are less vigorous than heirlooms and hybrids. Supersweet corn may be more sensitive to cold soils and variable soil conditions. Cross-pollination between supersweet corn and other corn varieties increases starchiness in the kernels for both varieties, […]