Sweet corn harvest with Row Binder?

[RevJJ]

Was ruminating today with a fried that does truck farming, and he is wanting to start some sweet corn (likely on some of my property) like NK199 or some such. I told him I wouldn't plant any kind of corn unless I could do five acres or more for pollination, standing issues, ect.. Anyhow, the topic of harvest came up, and I am just wondering out loud what it would be to use a row binder to harvest, and take the ears off at the shed, or even have the bundles as the stand? Would standing the corn on the stalk in containers of cold water help with keeping them fresh, ect.? Just a wacky idea, and wondering if anyone had ever tried it (before we do next spring....). I have a good row binder, and no taller that sweet corn gets in Texas the bundles shouldn't be too hard to handle.

 

[gene bender]

If you want to harvest it all at the same time get a sweetcorn picker. But all of the ears wont be at the same stage. You will need to do smoe sorting. Nieghbot who has many acres and sells by the ear with husks still on said for him there was too much waste as some ears needed to be on the stalk a little later. He sells around 7 pickups a day when in season and they hand pick daily.

 

[mkirsch]

Seems like a lot of extra work to me. Very few people will be interested in taking the stalks. If my experience at frequenting roadside sweet corn stands means anything, most leave the husks for you to clean up as well.

It would be a novel way to harvest and market the product, that's for sure. "Pick Your Own." However, the cost of harvesting, hauling the heavy stalks to the roadside stand, hauling water to put the stalks in, and hauling the trash back to the field... There's no money in it. You'd have to charge a premium of $1-$2 a dozen, and people will just drive on by and go to the next stand that has it cheaper.

 

[RN]

Some Amish do that with sweet corn using the same equipment they use for field corn. Bound corn bundles taken to sorting shed, big market ears set in go to market boxes, stalks and undersize ears fed to cows,pigs or horses with chickens sratching leftovers. Some of the old open polinated corn like Reeds Yellow Dent, Bloody Butcher, Cherokee picked "green" for use as sweet corn- I"ve eaten some green field corn and not bad tasting. If you have the equipment and a couple hungry critters to dispose of stalks, try it and see how much work it is- you"ll be doing the hand husking under a roof, baskets will be on table instead of carrying bag down rows while picking while walking, coffee cup will be a step away from work bench.