Corn weed control

[Anonymous-0]

I plan to test a small plot of corn next spring using no chemicals for weed control, I dont own a cultivator though either. Does anybody think it would be possible to seed clover with the corn and have it grow between the rows to suppress weeds? Or will the weeds get off to such a start that it wont help at all?

 

[K. Peters]

Just my own opinion, but anything growing in a corn field other than corn is a weed and robbing nutrients from the corn.
I have a field of corn that wasn't sprayed due to weather conditions but did get through with the cultivator and the weeds are still bad.
You said this will be a small test plot and this is what test plots are for so try it and see what happens.

 

[paul]

Corn emeges, grows to 4-5 leaves, and sits there for a while with no more top growth; it feeds it roots for a while creating a strong root setup.

Then it takes off & grows like crazy.

If anything messes with it during that root setup phase, like shadows from weeds or clover, it will forget about the roots, and try to outgrow the weeds/ clover. This totally upsets the plant, and it will lose all it's yield potental. As well, the corn really can't grow fast at this point anyhow, while many weeds can.

Corn is very sensitive to weed pressure at this point in time, even uneven planting can cause it to stress as it views it's neighbor as a threat. You want the corn well spaced and no weeds or anything around it for that week or 2 as it sits building it's root ball.

Clover grows very slowly as a young plant, and won't throw much shade for weeds until mid summer.

Weeds of course have learned to be very fast growing & keep coming on strong.

I guess, I would keep the test area very small, as it will end up being a real mess imho.

--->Paul

 

[randallnMo]

Good theory, but highly unlikely to be successful. If you plant both at the same time, the corn will outgrow the clover for the first 4 weeks, thus never really giving the clover a chance to establish. Thus the weed control from the clover later on will be minimized. THe weeds will germinate the same time as the corn and will far outgrow the clover . Now, what I have done "fairly successfully", is to plant corn into an existing stand of clover and alfalfa (via no-till) and that worked pretty good for weed control. The corn is slow to start, but will eventually outgrow the forage stand.

You're gonna have a mess doing it your way.

 

[LAA]

That is basically what I do every year, plant corn in grazed down ryegrass and clover, have no-tilled for years on 30""rows but this year drilled it on 12"" spacing, the corn did well, fertilize heavy P&K 1 month pre-plant and heavy N when planting, I don"t cultivate or spray, a week after the corn comes off the cows are back grazing. This year I was unexpectedly off working when it was time to chop and wound up picking some and combining the rest with a grain platform, took a while.

 

[IaGary]

How did it yield?

This idea of going corn in another crop sounds like a waste of seed to me.

Might as well harvest the crop that is already growing and forget trying to grow corn in it.

I can't imagine the corn getting started good enough to out grow the clover. And if it ever does get ahead of it the ears will be the size of your thumb.

Why bother.

Gary

 

[kyhayman]

I drilled some corn notil into a existing pasture. Cut it late and close, then drilled in the corn. All depends on what you plan to do with it. I used mine for grazing and round baled silage. Made good stuff of both.

Problems.... corn made no ear, tasseled at about 3 feet tall. Less than 80 percent stand. Obviously ran out of water at around 60 days, just too much biomass on an acre at the drilled spacing. In the low places it made really good corn plants, still no ear.

For what I tried and with 10 dollar a bag seed corn it worked will. The corn was a return that a dealer had gotten back and the company that bagged the corn had gone bankrupt. Dealer was stuck with it, and it was 2 years out of date.

 

[Eastfork]

Look up the rodale institute. They no till organic corn and beans into rye. When the winter rye heads out in late spring they use a roller crimper to kill it and the dense matt smothers any weeds. I always thought a guy could do it with a light disking.

Corn can't handle any competition early on and clover won't compete because of it's slow growth but that's defeats the purpose for weed control.

Just for kicks you could try to double plant! Plant the plot at half rate and then go again between the rows. That way you would get a much quicker canopy.

 

[Eastfork]

Forgot mention, I worked for a guy that planted with a 6 row 30 inch planter with row units in between so he could plant 15 inch beans. One day he was planting corn and forgot to turn off the other boxes so he had beans between every row of corn! The corn actually did ok and so did the beans. Don't remember anything on spray or weed control.

 

[JOE FARMER]

TEST PLOT??? HOW BIG? GET A HOE AND A ROTILLER
LOL;;SERIOUSLY THOUGH I HAD THE BEST SWEET CORN I HAVE HAD 4 YRS PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER
BUT WITH NO RAIN 4 THREE WEEKS AFTER PLANTING AND SPRAY DID NOT TAKE HAD
TERRIBLE WEEDS;;;;HAD WORKED GROUND REALGOOD
AND PACKED BEFORE PLANTING WITH NO-TILL PLANTER; CRUST TOP MADE 4 SLOW WEED EMERGANCE; THE N THE RAINS CAME;AND THE WEEDS;;? DID U KNOW THAT A DR STRING MOWER OR SWISHER IF U PREFER FITS RIGHT DOWN A 30INCH ROW?? HAVE USED THIS TRICK 4 YRS ON THISLE OUT BREAKS IN FIELD CORN AFTER TO TALL 2 SPRAY;; I RAN ONE DOWN THE ROWS TWICE A WEEK AFTER WORK; NOW I HAVE A NICE GRASSY PATH 2 WALK DOWN WHILE PICKING CORN,ALSO HAVE LET THE WEEDS GRW UP THEN MOW AT ABOUT 4INCH HIGH LET STAND A FEW DAYS THEN HIT WITH ROUNDUP AT OR SOON AFTER PLANTING" AGAIN NO TILL PLANTER" AS CORN COMES UP WEEDS R DYING DOWN AND LEVES A GOOD WINDOW 4 THE CORN TO START THRU THE DEAD SOD;;;;KRIS

 

[LAA]

Gary -- in my part of the country clover and ryegrass burn off by the second week of June, tops, outgrowing clover with corn is no problem, plus fertilize heavy, this is poor clay hill ground, this ground will not yield anything approaching what you are used to, completely different economic model. The reason why I do it is because I need the feed in the late summer and early fall when the local calf run starts and in the mid fall when buying cull cows before turning them out on winter pasture. In 8 out of 10 years I have way more spring grazing than I need but am not home to chop the surplus or cut and bale it.