As many of you know, We just bought our dream farm and i was talking to my dad and he said he would plant sweet corn for me next year. MY QUESTION.... If i planted a acre of sweet corn , how much money do you think i could make off a acre of corn. kelly

-- kelly (milkgoats12@aol.com), September 17, 2000

Answers

Response to PLEASE HELP...I HAVE A QUESTION

According to the book "Grow It" by Richard Langer you can get 50 ears of sweet corn in a 100 foot row. well heres my math.... if you plant the rows 2 1/2 - 3 foot apart you can get about 70 rows about 200 feet long that figures out to 7000 ears or 580 dozen and if you could sell them for $1.50 dozen thats $870.00. Now you figure the cost of seed, fertilizer pest control and labor, ect..... Its not sounding to profitable now.

Let me remind you I am not a vegtable farmer or very good at math. Good Luck!

-- Mark (deadgoatman@webtv.net), September 17, 2000.

Response to PLEASE HELP...I HAVE A QUESTION

You wouldn't want to plant all of the sweet corn as once, but to stagger plant it so a couple of rows are available once or so a week. If you also want to run a steer or two for the freezer, they will love the still watery stalks and any ears which were not sellable. While the entire stalk can be fed, it would be great if they could be run through a yard chipper first, creating essentially instant silage.

An acre would probably support roadside sales, either picked by you or pick-your-own.

Bear in mind not every plant will produce sellable ears. My WAG is you are looking at a gross income more in the range of $300-$400 an acre. From that comes out all expenses.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 17, 2000.

Response to PLEASE HELP...I HAVE A QUESTION

PROFIT A lot will depend where you are located, i.e. your weather, your soils, and if you can irrigate should it be needed.

"The New Seed Starters Handbook" by Nancy Bubel suggests in row spacing of 8 to 12 inches, with rows 30 to 42 inches apart. I have used 10 to 12 inch spacing with 30 inch rows with excellent success. I do irrigate using this plant population. Drip row crop tubing is about $.04 per running foot when purchased in quantity. Using 12 inch X 30 inch spacing, an acre would have a plant population of 15,840. I like "KandyKorn" which with abundant nutrients and water will often give two ears per stalk. Not taking that into consideration, if you closely managed your corn you might expect to achieve 15,000 salable ears. Around here they sell for $.25 to $.30 each. A yield of 15,000 ears would therefore give a gross income of $3,750. Much higher than indicated by the other figures presented. You must remember that there is a lot of work to produce a good salable sweet corn. Also be aware that corn is a heavy feeder so lots of fertilizer will be needed. The seed itself will cost considerably. As stated, be sure to make succession plantings, not only will they be easier to take care of time wise, but will not flood the market all at once. You should get repeat customers. Remember to plant in blocks of at least four rows at a time since corn is wind pollinated. Any less and the ears probably won't fill properly. Each silk must have pollen on it in order to produce a kernel. To ensure good pollination you can hand pollinate by gently bending a stalk over the next row and shaking the pollen onto a forming ear. Along those lines, 30 inch rows are not fun to work in, but it can be done. I have also put a few drops of mineral oil on the silks to help prevent ear worm invasion. KandyKorn has a tight ear tip which also helps.

A word of caution, if you plant more than one variety they sometimes inter pollinate and produce tough pericarp, i.e. the skins of the individual kernels, so plant different varieties well away from each other.

In addition to feeding stalks to livestock, but sure to bundle some for sale for decorating purposes. Individual bundles will often sell for $10 to the city folk, especially if you are willing to deliver them.

You are on the right track by doing your leg work now. Don't forget soil testing now, so that you can make amendments over winter.

Good luck, and enjoy the non salable but still edible ears.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), September 17, 2000.

Response to PLEASE HELP...I HAVE A QUESTION

my sister just got back home ( oklahoma) from california, they have a vacation house in san diego. she paid $1 EACH for ears of corn. granted, this corn is wonderful tasting and is certified organically grown, handpicked and sold every day, none carried over to the next day. so if you can get $1 an ear, go for it

gene

oh i forgot to mention, if you don't get to this produce stand by about 8:30 or 9 am, then you will find it sold out. not just corn, all their veggies and fruits.

-- GENE WARD (GWARD34847@AOL.COM), September 17, 2000.

Response to PLEASE HELP...I HAVE A QUESTION

Kelly---just wanted to tell you a quote my Dad would have said to me if I had asked him that question-----"don't count your chickens before the eggs hatch!" Too many times I have counted on something to find out it just was not ment to be! Best wishes --if we don't have plans & goals we might as well give up---but don't count your money yet!! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), September 17, 2000.

Response to PLEASE HELP...I HAVE A QUESTION

hey - you will also need something big enough to haul several hundred ear of corn to mkt - nobody pays $1/ear in the midwest - 2.50-3.00 a doz is typical, unless you are first in or last out - not likely your first year try growing a smaller patch at first - if you're on a new place, there'll be lots of demand on your time besides weed control, market location, picking time & selling

-- Judy Genereux (thistle_farm@hotmail.com), September 20, 2000.

My parents and I tried growing sweet corn this year for sale. I live in central SD. We had several problems. First, we didn't have an effective weed control plan. We had sprayed with Atrazene for the grass the previous year but we still had lots of grass. Second, I was at church camp 200 miles from home and didn't have time to pick it and figure out a decent place to sell it. My mother and sisters picked and sold several hundred dozen for prices ranging from $2 to $1.20 per dozen. We sold the first pickings out of the back of our suburban in a parking lot. The rest we sold to local grocery stores and gave to friends. I didn't make any money but it was good experience. If I did it again I would put up electric fence to keep the coons out and find something to spray for the worms with.

-- James (jakonech@dwu.edu), October 01, 2001.