How to soak corn for planting and grow a rich harvest from ready-made seeds

The history of corn as an agricultural crop goes back about 9 thousand years. It has been actively used and is now used in cooking and medicine. It ranks second after wheat in terms of sales volume in the world among grain crops.

Corn is suitable for dietary nutrition - when consumed in moderation, it helps to get rid of excess weight by stimulating the cleansing of the digestive tract of toxins. Thanks to a large amount of antioxidants, cereal protects the skin from aging. Eating maize reduces the risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Planting a crop is simple, but it is worth considering the nuances of choosing a variety and preparing seeds. In this article we will tell you how to choose a variety and soak corn for planting, how to care for seedlings, and how to harvest and preserve the crop.

Variety selection and seed selection

There are a great many varieties of corn. The choice depends on the geographical location, weather conditions and purpose of application.

The best varieties and hybrids for obtaining a rich harvest on your personal plot: sweet variety Lakomka 121, Dobrynya, Spirit, Early Golden, Ice Nectar, Sundance, Pioneer, Syngenta, Jubilee.

In central Russia, where summers are short, early corn is recommended: Early sweet, Trophy F1, Jubilee F1, Landmark F1, Ladozhsky 250 MV, Ladozhsky 191, Madonna. These varieties and hybrids give a good harvest within 2.5 months after planting.

Mid-season include: Sweetstar F, Maxalia, Lingonberry, Favorite, Pearl, Delicacy, Mermaid, Spirit F1.

Late ripening varieties – the most resistant to diseases: Polaris, Bashkirovets, Russian bursting.

If you need corn for popcorn, choose special varieties: Gobble-gobble, Ping-Pong, Vulcan, Red Zeya, Hotel, Granddaughter's Joy, Airy. Please note that they are particularly high maintenance. They are suitable for popcorn because inside each kernel there is a drop of juice that breaks the shell when heated.

The best feed varieties: Zhemchug, Adevey, Saratov sugar medium-grown, Aurika, Golden Fleece, Kubansky, Viola.

For growing on the balcony They take low-growing varieties, for example, Skvirka, Delicatesnaya, Kulikovsky.

Seeds for sowing are selected in the fall. Choose large, evenly ripe cobs. Moreover, the plants from which the cobs are collected should also be tall and untouched pests and diseases. The selected fruits are dried in the sun and stored in a dry, well-ventilated room until spring, calibrated by size.

Important! Only one variety is grown on the site so that cross-pollination does not occur and the parental properties are not lost.

Seed preparation

Main rules for seed preparation:

1. Before planting, they are calibrated by size, choosing only large, rich and bright colors.
2. A week before sowing, maize cobs are left for 3-4 days to be heated in the sun - this helps speed up germination. To do this, the fruits are placed in a gauze bag.
3. To prevent diseases, grains are treated with fungicides.
4. Some gardeners practice seed hardening. Place the grains in a damp cloth bag and put them in the refrigerator for five days.
5. Then they are soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes to disinfect, washed, placed in a container and kept warm. When small roots appear, the grains are planted in the ground. Some summer residents do not wait until the grains hatch and, after soaking the seeds for a couple of hours, immediately after that they plant them in the ground.

Planting seeds for seedlings

If the region is characterized by a short, rainy summer, which does not allow harvesting the cobs on time, seedlings will help. The seedling method brings the harvest closer by a whole month.

When to sow? In central Russia, grains are sown for seedlings in late April - early May, approximately a month before planting in open ground. The further north the plot of land is, the later they begin to grow seedlings. Maize seedlings are planted in open ground around the beginning of June.

The soil is shed, the seeds are buried to a depth of 2-3 cm. The soil is moistened regularly as it dries. For the full development of plants, illumination with fluorescent lamps is used. When the seedlings begin to grow feed mineral complexes.

Important! Overgrown seedlings will not produce a good harvest.

The good thing about the seedling method is that, with the right approach, up to two harvests can be harvested from one plot per season.

Another rule: seeds cannot be germinated in a common box. It is better to sow them in peat tablets in special containers, divided into small sections. It is allowed to plant in ordinary disposable plastic cups or cut-off plastic bottles.

Planting grains in open ground

Maize loves sunny and open places. It is important to know the correct timing of planting grains. If there is a lack of heat, the sprouts will not be able to increase the required volume of green mass and form cobs.

Corn grows densely, but without interfering with each other. Correct calculation: 5-7 seeds per 1 square. m.

Deadlines

Cereal planting time: when the soil temperature warms up to +10°C. For the southern and central regions this is the end of April - beginning of May.

If, according to the weather forecast, the region is warming, corn can be planted in open ground earlier, after warming up the soil under the film.

Attention! In cold weather, the seed does not germinate for a long time, it accumulates moisture in the ground and often sprouts, having already become infected with fungal infections.

Soil preparation

The planting location is determined on the sunny side, well ventilated. Ideally, wheat, legumes, cucumbers or tomatoes grew there last season.

The land is being prepared for planting in the fall. They dig up the bed, fertilize it with manure and phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. Corn does not like acidic soils, so such soil is deoxidized with dolomite flour or lime.

In the spring, two weeks before planting, they dig it up again, removing all the weeds.

In the spring, they dig again to a shallower depth, remove weeds, and apply complex fertilizers. The work is carried out two weeks before planting the seeds.

Landing nuances

Plant corn seeds in rows. The distance between rows is 50-70 cm, between seeds - about 15-20 cm.

Advice! The packaging with seeds always describes the nuances of planting the variety. Follow these guidelines.

The depth of planting grain in heavy, loamy soils is 4-5 cm, in ordinary soil - 5-6 cm, in light and loose soil - 8 cm.

Important! Corn is not planted in single bunches. It is not capable of self-pollination; it is a cross-pollinated plant.

Growing and care

Although corn is called the queen of fields, it is unpretentious in care and does not require much effort from the gardener.However, proper care will increase productivity and make the cobs sweeter. In addition, maize needs protection from diseases, like other plants in the garden.

Thinning of seedlings

If germination is good, if the plantings turn out to be too dense, it is worth thinning them out, leaving tall and green plants at a distance of 15-25 cm from each other.

When pulling out excess sprouts, act carefully and hold the soil so as not to damage neighboring plants.

Hilling up and removing weeds

Corn loves loose soil, so the soil is regularly loosened and weeds are removed every two weeks. Plants are hilled once or twice a season to prevent the heavy bush from falling.

Watering and fertilizing

Maize is watered regularly, ensuring soil moisture to a depth of 15 cm. The crop loves moisture and needs watering throughout the entire growth period.

You should not overwater: the roots should be in moist, not wet soil. If the leaves have acquired a gray-violet hue, stop watering.

The grains are fed using organic matter and mineral fertilizers and following the timing:

• for the first time - with manure, chicken droppings after the appearance of 3-4 leaves;
• again - ammonium nitrate, potassium-phosphorus fertilizer in liquid form after 2-3 weeks.

Protection from illnesses and diseases

Excess moisture leads to the rapid spread of fungal diseases. The most common problems:

1. Helminthosporiosis. The leaves dry out and die, and spots in the shape of an ellipse or rectangle of orange-brown color form on them. A dark-colored coating appears between the grains on the cobs. Diseased plants are removed, the rest are treated with biological or chemical fungicides.
2. Fusarium - cob disease.Several pockets of fluffy white, pink or purple mycelium appear among the grains.
3. Rust. Yellow spots similar to rust appear on the leaves. The disease develops quickly, the cobs do not have time to form.
4. Dusty smut. Together, the fetus remains a sloppy lump of uncertain configuration. Infected from the soil. The pathogen persists in the ground for up to nine years.
5. Blister smut. The entire stem of the plant is covered with swollen bubbles. At first they are slimy, then they dry out and reproduce with pollen.
6. Stem rot. Another type of disease when the entire bush is affected. The leaves dry out, the roots rot and easily come out of the soil. As a result, the bushes fall to the ground.

Fighting methods

Helps to avoid diseases:

• the right choice of varieties and hybrids that are resistant to fungal diseases;
• deep digging of the earth;
• soil preparation in the fall, treatment with fungicides;
• dressing grains with antifungal drugs;
• compliance with sowing dates, regular weeding and thinning;
• proper watering, constant loosening, weed removal;
• preventive spraying of plantings with fungicides.

Harvesting

Corn harvesting is carried out during full maturity grains in the upper cobs of the main stalks when the wrappers turn white, the hairs on top of the cob become brown, and the grains harden and become shiny and light yellow in color.

Maize is stored frozen or dried. Freshly picked in the refrigerator the cobs are stored up to two weeks. Freeze grains or whole cobs after scalding them. They do not lose their properties for six months.

If the fruits are collected for seeds, you should wait until the hairs on top of the cob become completely dry and brown.This means that excess moisture has left them. Such grains will become excellent seed material.

Advice from experienced summer residents

Pre-sowing treatment of grains helps to increase immunity and rid seeds of pathogens. If you plan to plant your own material, pay attention to the following tips:

1. Even at the grain selection stage, large, full-bodied grains without flaws in the form of black spots, stripes, etc. are selected. Most diseases are transmitted through seeds and only 10% through soil.
2. Be sure to carry out disinfection, for example, in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate. The liquid does not penetrate inside and does not spoil the seed, but kills infections on the surface. Corn grains are soaked in the solution for 45 minutes. To obtain a 1% mixture, dilute 1 tsp in three glasses of water. potassium permanganate without top.
3. Soak the seeds in clean water. To do this, fill a 1.5 liter bottle with water and wait until it is half frozen in the freezer, leave the ice, and pour out the rest. Soak the seeds with water obtained from melted ice. Such water has the ability to quickly penetrate inside the seed, accelerating germination. Some people add Epin, potassium humate, Zircon or aloe juice. But it is advised to refrain from adding ash or fertilizers.
4. Corn grows in groups, so the grains are not planted individually.
5. You should not plant different varieties next to each other: they will be pollinated and lose their varietal characteristics.
6. If the maize seeds are irregularly shaped and shriveled, they are most likely sweet corn. They germinate less well and need more abundant watering.
7. Popcorn varieties are planted on the sunny side; even partial shading will prevent the cobs from ripening during the summer.
8. To determine whether the cobs are ready for harvesting, press on the ripe grain: if milky juice appears, harvest, if there is a clear liquid, wait.

Conclusion

The unpretentiousness of corn allows this plant to be cultivated in almost all regions. With minimal care, maize produces a high yield and delights with nutritious cobs.

And having mastered the simple secrets of agricultural technology, you will provide yourself with delicious, juicy corn until the next summer season.