Is Corn Annual Or Perennial? Do I Need To Plant It Every Year?

on September 27, 2022

Corn is one of the most popular vegetables eaten in the supermarket, however, if you want to get very sweet cobs it is best to grow them at home which is easy to do. However, if you haven’t planted corn before you may be wondering if is it an annual plant or a perennial. And do you have to plant it every year?

Corn is an annual plant that does need to be planted every single year if you want to produce a crop year-on-year. However, to have corn in your garden for a reasonable amount of time you need to successionally plant batches of corn every 4 to 6 weeks as the period that an individual crop is ready to pick is relatively short.

Each corn stalk that you produce will traditionally produce two ears of corn in a season. Once the corn ears have been removed from the plant they will not produce again and therefore can be removed from your garden.

Can You Plant Kernels From Store-Bought Cobs?

It is possible to grow corn from store-bought cobs and the traditional approach to this is to take the corn cobs and allow the kernels to dry out. Once they become hard and solid they can be snapped off the corn cob and planted.

However, the downside of growing corn from store-bought cobs is nearly every commercially produced corn is grown from hybrid seeds which will not necessarily produce the same type of corn when planted.

The reason for this is that hybrid seeds are created by crossing two other varieties to create seeds. However, the seeds are genetically unstable which means that subsequent generations of seeds produced from the hybrids will have a different genetic combination and therefore they will behave differently.

To avoid this issue you do need to get heirloom variety seeds which are also sometimes referred to as open-pollinated seeds. In the case of corn, it is relatively difficult to get open-pollinated varieties as most garden centers only offer hybrid varieties which will typically have the term hybrid in the name or F1.

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How To Grow Corn

As mentioned earlier in the article corn is relatively easy to grow and requires very little effort. Corn seeds can be sowed directly into the soil or into seed trays. Generally, most gardeners will do a combination of these plantings depending upon the time of year that the planting is occurring. However, if you are planting in the early part of the season it is advisable to use a seed tray as corn is frost sensitive and needs protection.

To start this process we recommend filling a seed tray with a good quality seed-raising mix and then firming the soil into the individual cells within the seed tray to form solid plugs. This is advantageous because it allows the soil to be removed as a solid piece which reduces disturbance later on when the seedlings are transplanted into the garden.

Once the soil is in position plant one seed per cell at a depth of approximately half an inch and then cover over the soil. The seed tray should be placed in a relatively warm well-lit location and watered regularly to ensure that the soil remains moist.

In reasonable conditions you can expect that the corn will take around about 7 to 10 days to appear and will need to spend approximately 6 weeks in total in the seed tray before the corn seeds are ready to plant out into the garden by which time they will be approximately 4 inches tall.

At this point, it is advisable to plant your next lot of corn seedlings in seed trays to ensure that you have successional crops. Ideally, it is advisable to continue this pattern throughout the season up until late summer as corn planted beyond that time will usually not reach maturity. corn typically requires 100 to 120 days to reach full maturity

Planting Corn Seedlings Out Into The Garden

Once the seedlings have reached the point at which they are ready to be planted out into the garden they should ideally be placed in a warm location that gets at least 6 to 8 hours of sun per day only after any risk of frost has passed.

In terms of soil conditions, the plants generally prefer rich, moist, and free-draining that has plenty of nutrients. If you are unsure about the quality of the soil it is advisable to add a bag of compost before planting seeds out into the garden.

The seedling should ideally be placed approximately 10 inches apart in blocks rather than rows. The reason for this is that corn plants are wind pollinated which means planting in blocks rather than long rows increases the chance of pollination occurring.

Once the plants in the ground it is advisable to apply a layer of mulch approximately 2 to 4 inches thick to exclude in the light and retain moisture. Then it is important to regularly water throughout the season to ensure that the soil remains moist.

When the plants have become established there is very little else to do other than ensure that the soil remains moist as corn is generally not affected to a great degree by slugs and snails.

Harvesting Corn

Harvesting corn can be a little bit tricky as it can be sometimes difficult to tell whether the corn is completely ripe and ready to be picked. The first sign the corn is approaching the point at which it can be picked is that the white spindly fibers that come out of the top of the cob will begin to turn brown and die back completely.

Once this has occurred the corn will be approaching the point at which it is ready to be picked. However, to check this peel back the outer sheath of the corn to expose the corn kernels. To check if they are ripe, use your thumbnail to pierce one of the kernels to release the liquid inside.

If the liquid is milky in color that means the ears are ready to harvest, however, if not recover the corn ear and come back in a week or so and recheck the cob.

Once the corn is ripe they generally do not hang around for very long so you need to pick them at their best and use them. However, if you miss the window of opportunity and the corn starts to deteriorate you can put the cobs aside and collect seeds for the following season if you have purchased open-pollinated varieties.

How To Maximize Your Garden Output When Growing Corn

Corn is a crop that does take up a reasonable amount of space within your garden, however, you can companion plant other crops within the corn which will help to maximize the amount of overall produce that you get from the garden.

Plants that are ideally suitable to plant with corn are ones that have trailing vines which includes things like pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelons, and even zucchinis in some cases. Additionally, some people also plant climbing beans with the corn well that runs up the stalks providing a support structure.

The most well-known combination that is widely used is the three sisters’ which is corn, pumpkin, and climbing beans. This technique was developed by Native Americans and is beneficial to all three plants as pumpkins will provide ground cover to help retain moisture while climbing beans will provide additional nitrogen to the soil which will help corn to grow.