How to harvest corn seeds correctly

How to grow corn to harvest good seeds

In order to get good grains, you should take care that the culture grows and develops correctly. Healthy plants are the key to properly developing seeds. This means that you need to grow a healthy culture that will give the same healthy and abundant offspring.

It is enough to follow the simple technology of growing and caring for the crop. This involves proper soil preparation, sterilization, fertilization, as well as pest control during growth, timely watering and control of the conditions in which the corn grows. And now about everything in order.

Corn grows best after beets, potatoes, legumes and winter crops. The soil is recruited with nutrients that contribute to the proper growth and development of corn. However, you can also grow it where it grew last year. It is possible to grow corn on black soil for 10 years on the same plot.

It is worth digging the soil under the sowing at least 8 centimeters, then apply fertilizer and distribute it to a depth of 30 centimeters. So the root system of the plant will develop correctly and receive all the necessary nutrients from the soil. Digging and fertilizing the soil is best done a few weeks before sowing. A week later, cultivate the soil again and remove all weeds. It is important to maintain soil moisture, destroy all extraneous plants, and create favorable conditions for growth.

The corn should be fed with nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, magnesium and calcium. It is worth remembering that this culture requires a more thorough and abundant application of nutrients. At the same time, for different climatic zones and types of soil, the ratio of substances will be different. By the way, fertilizers are not applied at the same time, but at different periods of soil preparation. So phosphorus and potassium should be added to the soil in the fall, and magnesium, calcium and nitrogen - just before cultivation.

An important factor is also the preparation of seeds for sowing the parent crop. It is best to purchase seeds prepared at the plant. The germination and germination energy of such grains is maximum. However, you can take seeds from your reserves, making sure that they are intact and free of any diseases, starting with commonplace mold. Seeding is done at a depth of 4–6 centimeters.

Ripening signs

Before harvesting corn kernels for sowing, you need to make sure that they are completely ripe. To do this, it is worth checking the condition of both the corncob itself and the seeds by pushing back the leaves covering them.

How do you know if the corn is ripe? To begin with, you should pay attention to the condition of the female threads of the cob. During ripening, they turn brown. The main thing is not to wait until the threads begin to dry out. Ripe corn is considered to have darkened, but still moist, juicy threads.

Next, you should assess the condition of the corncob.The outer layers of the wrapper are covered with a drying edge within a millimeter wide. The color of the wrapper loses its saturation and begins to lighten. The correct color of the wrapper during ripening is light green.

The grains themselves must be dense, filled, elastic. Their rows should be tightly joined together. The surface of the grains should be smooth, without wrinkles or dents. If you press on such a grain, then a thin light yellow shell breaks through. Its contents are milky white liquid.

If you delay in harvesting corn heads, the grains will become hard, wrinkled, and their development will be inhibited. Therefore, it is important to harvest on time, within two weeks as the grains ripen. However, in the garden dacha, things will go faster, because the rows and plants will be fewer than in the fields of an industrial scale.

The ears that you have chosen for future seed collection should be left until autumn.

Choosing ears for future seed harvesting is fairly easy. On several arbitrary plants (some summer residents say that it is best to choose the most actively developing ones), it is worth calculating the largest ears and leaving some markings so as not to accidentally cut them off during the harvesting period. It is best to tie them with a bright ribbon and leave them on the plant until early fall.

How to collect

The ears left to form the seed are harvested when the head wrapper turns yellow and becomes dry and tough, and the kernels become hard and rich yellow. This stage is called the "waxy maturity" stage. The ears reaching this stage are already completely inedible. They can neither be frozen nor boiled - nothing tasty will come of this venture. However, not for this they were left to ripen on the stem.

Once the heads of cabbage are ripe, they should be cut and sent to a dry and warm place. It is in these conditions that testes develop best over the next three weeks.

The selection of seeds from the cobs is done in the fall. Most often, the parsing of the head of cabbage is taken up in the month of October, after all the summer cottage work is over, and the gallant gardeners return to their city apartments. By this time, the seeds become completely dry, resembling glass to the touch.

Remove the grains from the head of cabbage with your hands so as not to damage. It doesn't take a lot of effort to do this. Seeds that are properly dried are separated fairly easily and quickly.

It is worth taking grains from the middle of the cobs. From the edges, they often do not develop enough to give offspring, they do not have suitable germinating or energetic characteristics.

After parsing the cob, the grains should be left for another week to dry, and only then packaged in bags. If you are growing several different varieties, you should sign the bags so that there is no confusion before sowing. Correctly dried seeds under suitable conditions can be stored and retain their growth capacity for up to 5 years.

Remember to avoid storing seeds in damp or cold rooms. Otherwise, the seeds may freeze or mold. Thus, all the work will go to waste and you will lose good material for growing new plants next year.

Video "How to prepare corn grains"

This video will tell you how to properly prepare your own planting material for sowing corn.