Sweet Corn Recommendations

[JBMac]

My sweet corn is looking great! It was planted very late for N. Florida, around the end of April. It"s been fertilized with around 180 lbs of nitrogen per acre in 3 applications. Only a couple dozen or so plants in 5 acres show signs of corn earworm damage to the whorls and leaves. So far, I"ve used atrazine to keep the weeds at bay, and it"s done a great job. My question is, what should I use on the corn earworms that I know will come? Most of the corn is tassleing and beginning to silk now. I"m not too concerned about the use of herbicides, but some of the insecticides I"d rather keep out the food the family and friends will be eating. Some of the online research I"ve done says I may need to spray 5 times to keep the little buggers out of the ears??? Any recommendations on the best insecticide and spray intervals? Looking forward to your recommendations.

 

[keh]

If you have 5 acres this won't work, but supposedly a few drops of baby oil on the silks at the top of the ear will keep the worms off.

Sevin is the standby. I doubt if more than one application would be needed.

Diatomaceous earth which you can google is a possibility. It is dusted on. probably would require several applications.

KEH

 

[ldj]

[i:8f61ec80b4]I"m not too concerned about the use of herbicides, but some of the insecticides I"d rather keep out the food the family and friends will be eating.[/i:8f61ec80b4][color=red:8f61ec80b4][/color:8f61ec80b4]

Don't think there isn't bad herbicides. You do remember Agent orange, don't you. Also Paraquat. Remember our Gov. was spraying it in Mexico to kill pot.
Mexicans sold it anyway. Made dope heads very sick and the dope heads got spraying stopped. I could name others. READ the LABEL and be safe. If you don't you will get advice from someone who hasn't read the label.

 

[twopop]

I use permithrin.ortho house and garden spray.
can also use sevin liquid,spray every seven days,spray five times starting as soon as the first silks appear

 

[JBMac]

You are right about the herbicides and reading the labels. Agent Orange was actually a precursor to one of the world's most used herbicides, 2,4-D. The problem was, it had dioxin, a carcinogen as a bi-product of manufacture. Some say this is because of the governments pressure on the manufacturer to produce product. As for Paraquat or Diquat, they are nothing but a big batch of free-radicals that many people take vitamins against. On a hot day, if you have seen what these two herbicides do to plants, they do the same to your lungs. In general, herbicides don't worry me as much as insecticides, because we (humans) dont share any bio-chemical pathways that herbicides target with plants. However, we do share, on a basic level, some of the same pathways as insecticides. Some, organophosphates, were originally developed as nerve agents.. The fact is, we need these products to produce food, they simply must be used safely: correctly calibrated sprayers, us of IPM's, and and PPE's

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Are there any Herbicides approved for use on sweet corn? I don't want it anyway if you're going to use poisons in the garden may as well buy from the store

 

[Robert in Md]

I have about 6 acres of Sweet corn in 10 different plantings. I start spraying when the tassle is in the swirl. I spray about every 5 or 6 days with Warrior insecticide. There are 2 or 3 generic of this spray this year that are cheaper. If I didn"t spray none of this corn would be sellable. I used Sevin several years ago but it will not control the worms.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Oil helps a little.Sevin must be applied weekly.My wife and have grown sweet corn for over 50 years.Guess work doesnt work...