Row Widths?

[bowhuntr311]

Hey all,

With winter setting in for the long haul and the only thing to do up here in Da North Woods is ice fishing I have been thinking about different properties/crops.

Im interested in doing some corn or beans or both this year. I am limited to using my ATV for planting and spraying. Im thinking I can get my hands on some NARROW tires for an atv (like 8inches) for spraying. So anyways I can use an old JD290 2Row ground drive planter but only 1side works. So I was wondering if it would hurt anything to plant 2 rows (or 3) in between my tire spacing.

How close is too close? Assuming I dont run into a moisture issue is there a problem with uping the seed population per acre?

 

[sego60]

You could maybe get two rows between the tire width but I wouldnt go any closer than 12 inches with your rows. Thats pretty close for corn and if you get any closer the plants will start competing with each other for nutrients and moisture and probably will not end up even producing an ear and will not grow to full plant maturity. Beans on the other hand you could go down to about 6 inches between rows at the right population. with beans you can also broadcast them out over the ground and not even worry about rows.

 

[Sligh1]

If you're gonna do super narrow rows with corn- just pay attention to population really close. I've done 30-38" rows on corn with a population of around 32,000 seeds (some seed types do better with lighter or heavier populations- depends on the variety) BUT... If you were gonna do 12" rows with corn (I've never done that but I bet it's do-able)- I'd do maybe 20-25k population per acre. I'd be really precise so you didn't plant too many. You're gonna wanna plant a lot of corn if you have a lot of deer. On my land, i'm covered in deer and I don't even dare plant less than 8 acres UNLESS I have other corn or other crops right next to it.

 

[bowhuntr311]

Skip any idea where i would find out (once I get my free seed) which brand does better/worse in a higher/lower population?

 

[Sligh1]

It's easy, each company lists their #'s on their web page and gives attributes, seeding rates, maturity dates, pro's/con's (say stalk quality for example). Once you know the seed variety & #- post it on here and either me, Dbltree or Nannyslayer will tell you about that variety. I had Nanny do a little investigating into some odd #'s I had last year to know what I had. DT had some links too. Shouldn't be but a few minutes & you'll have all the info. Huge help. we'll get you fixed up!

 

[vman]

Id just stick to beans. Corn is nice, but you will have better success with beans.

Corn, I think is overrated. To get a really good stand everything must be perfect, and then the deer can still pound it.

 

[Sligh1]

Like I said earlier, with any decent #'s of deer- you pry want 8 acres minimum. Unless, again, there's corn next to it. I absolutely agree I wouldn't make it my only crop. If it were my land & I was doing 8 acres of corn, I'd hope to do, say 5 acres of beans, 1 acre clover and 2-3 acres of turnips/radishes or the Dbltree special (rye, clover, peas, radishes, etc).