How Many Ears of Corn Grow on a Stalk?
If you are in the planning stages of your garden and want to know precisely how many corn seeds to plant, the answer you are looking for is that you can count on one ear of corn per one stalk of corn.
When deciding how many corn plants to grow, you need to calculate several different things. For example, you should take into account the following elements:
- How much fresh corn will you and your family eat?
- How much corn do you want to preserve for later use?
- Will you be using the corn as fodder for your chickens or other farm animals?
- Will you be drying any corn to be ground into masa or cornmeal?
Once you take into account all of those variables, you can decide how much corn to plant.
Tip: Be sure to plant extra in case some of your plants do not produce at all, or in case of an infestation of pests or rodents.
Do Some Types of Corn Produce More Than One Ear?
As a general rule, you can count on one ear of corn per corn stalk. This holds true for all varieties of corn except a few late-ripening, super-sweet varieties. These can occasionally produce two ears.
You can also encourage your young corn plants to produce more than one ear by spacing the plants out more. Providing more room for the corn stalks to grow means less competition from other corn plants.
Tip: Since corn takes up so much room in the garden, most gardeners do not space out the plants in hopes of getting more than one harvestable ear.
Planning Your Corn Plot for Maximum Yield
If you are growing corn on a large scale with the hope of having enough to preserve for later use, you need to be sure you have allotted a large part of your garden for growing only corn. You should also stagger your planting times so you can harvest new ears of corn every couple of weeks.
However, if you are only planting corn seeds to have fresh corn to eat and are not planning on preserving any, all you need to do is grow as much corn as you think your family will eat during the corn season.
