Green gardening: Growing corn

There is only one way to truly enjoy the flavour of fresh corn: grow it yourself, because corn loses much of its sweetness within minutes after picking. Get in on the organic, do-it-yourself gardening and enjoy the benefits homegrown corn has to offer.

1. You must have considerable garden space to grow corn, since each stalk takes up a lot of room and produces only one or two ears.
2. Because corn is wind pollinated, it must be planted in such a way that adjacent stalks can pollinate one another.
3. Several short rows are sown in a block so that pollen from the corn tassels needs to travel only a short distance between plants.
4. Allow space for a block that is two metres (six and a half feet) wide by two and a half metres (eight feet) long, or five square metres (18 square feet).
5. Prepare the soil by incorporating well-rotted manure or compost. Apply as much as 25 kilograms (55 pounds) per 10 square metres (35 square feet) of garden bed.

1. Two weeks before the last expected frost, sow the corn seeds eight to 10 centimetres (three to four inches) apart and three centimetres (one inch) deep.
2. Before you plant use a soil thermometer to confirm that the soil temperature is at least 16°C (60°F).
3. You can prewarm the soil by spreading clear or black plastic over the planting area for a week before planting.
4. Space rows for early corn 60 centimetres (25 inches) apart. Later corn, which grows taller, should be planted in rows 90 centimetres (35 inches) apart.
5. When the seedlings are eight centimetres (three inches) tall, thin out the weaker ones, for a final spacing of 30 centimetres (12 inches) between plants.

• Corn needs plenty of moisture. To retain it (and to hold down weeds), spread on a heavy mulch of rotted straw or hay.
• Once sprouted, corn grows rapidly and consumes lots of soil nutrients; so it is important to fertilize. When stalks are 15 to 20 centimetres (six to eight inches) high, spread a band of fish meal or alfalfa meal on both sides of each row.
• If you have covered the ground with mulch, pull it aside before applying the fertilizer, or use a water-soluble fertilizer, such as fish emulsion, that you can pour over the mulch. Weeds will flourish, but be careful not to disturb the plants' shallow roots. Now get started, so you too can enjoy this summer crop.

1. Harvest corn while it is young, or it will lose its sweetness, as the sugar turns to starch.
2. Test each ear for ripeness: when an ear feels firm and full and the tips of the silks are dry and dark brown, it is ready to be picked.
3. To remove an ear, pull it downward by hand and twist it off the stalk.
4. Harvest only as much corn as you can eat at one meal.

If you find small holes in the base or sides of the ears, the corn has probably been invaded by corn borers — three-centimetre-long (one-inch-long) grubs that feed in the stalks and then attack the ears and sometimes the tassels. Prevent borers by spraying with Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki. Cover the leaves surrounding the ears and silks with spray.Respray three times at five-day intervals. To protect next year's crop, destroy old cornstalks and stubble, which can harbour corn borer larvae over the winter.Ears that are enlarged, bursting open, often with swollen brown to gray kernels visible, are affected by smut, a seed-borne disease. Discard.To prevent raccoon damage, tape each individual ear to the stalk, wrapping it around the ear and stalk three centimetres (one inch) below the tip of the ear.