- Old Fashioned Sweet Corn | Key Growing Information
- Sweet Corn | Key Growing Information
- Super Sweet Corn | Key Growing Information
- Sweet Corn Typology | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Broom Corn (Sorghum bicolor) | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Organic 1r Corn Treatment From Johnny's
- Ornamental Broom & Dry Field Corn | Key Growing Information
- Organic 1r Seed Treatment | OMRI Certificate
- Organic 1r Seed Treatment | Safety Data Sheet
- Super Sweet Corn | Production Guidelines | Tech Sheet (PDF)
- Sweet Corn Varieties | Comparison Chart (PDF)
- Dry Field Corn & Ornamental Corn (Broom Corn/Sorghum) | Comparison Chart (PDF)
Organic 1r Corn Treatment From Johnny's
We're out in our research farm in Albion, Maine. And it's the Friday before Memorial Day 2024. And here we've got a plot of some sweet corn that was seeded about three weeks ago. So it was May 3rd, which for us in Maine is still pretty cold and wet enough to keep it interesting. For those of you who grow sweet corn, you know that you can't push things too early. You'll get a lot of damping off and have issues with germination and get a poor stand, because that cold, wet weather gives you a lot of problems, a lot of little creepy crawlies in the soil that eat your seeds.
Cold Soil Germination Test
This year we did a cold soil germination test. This is something we do most years. We generally plant all the varieties that we sell. And then a lot of other varieties that are up and coming that we're interested in. And the goal is to plant in the ground earlier than you normally would. So for us we're looking to plant into soil that's about in the high 40°F's to low 50°F's degrees, temperature wise; really risky temperatures for sweet corn. And we try to see which ones do the best. And generally what we see is a lot of plots have really poor germination. If we plant chemically treated seed, it usually does fine. But what I wanted to show you today was the difference between raw, untreated seed and the same variety treated with our Organic 1r seed treatment.
Organic 1r Seed Treatment
Organic 1r is OMRI approved and NOP compliant, so you can use it on your organic operation. And we get results that are pretty incredible when you look at it.
I'll show you a couple plots here and just show you the difference between what you get with them without. Right here, I'm looking at two plots of 'Kickoff XR'. Now generally 'Kickoff XR' is a pretty strong seed, good quality in the early season, but again, the whole point of this test is to push things beyond their limits. Again, put this into really cool wet soil. And this is what happened with our untreated seed, we've got about ten sprouts here out of 50 seeds that we planted. And right next door to it here, this is 'Kickoff XR' treated with organic 1r. So dramatic difference in the stand, dramatic difference in the seedling vigor. This is just another plot a little bit farther down the line. On your right here, this is 'Natural Sweet', also a pretty decent variety coming out of the ground normally when you planted at a sensible time. But this was a little too early. And here is the 'Natural Sweet' treated with organic 1r. 'Natural sweet', of course, is certified organic seed. Here you can get it with a very effective seed treatment.
Organic 1r Instead of Transplanting
One thing we hear a lot from our organic customers is that they have such a hard time getting a good stand with direct seeding in their sweet corn that they're now moving to transplanting.
Transplanting does solve the problem of getting a poor stand, but it adds a lot of labor and sucks up a lot of greenhouse space. I would encourage you, if you're transplanting your corn because you're frustrated with the results of organic treatments you've used or you just don't think there's an alternative available, buy a small bag of organic 1r treated corn and give it a try, direct seeded. And I think you might be pretty pleased with the results.
One more plot here. This is 'Inspiration'. Untreated and treated with organic 1r. Dramatic difference as well. This is a variety that, you know, it's a later maturing variety. It's something that you probably wouldn't plant as a first early anyway. And it's also a variety we recommend for the South. So it's not likely to see cold conditions like this. But just to show you again, the results you get with this organic 1r treatment.
More Notes About Organic 1r Treatment
Just a couple other notes. If corn seed maggots are the issue that you're having, organic 1r is not going to help you with that. It doesn't have any insecticidal properties. It's basically a humic acid based formula that fosters a really beneficial environment of beneficial fungi and helps fight off things like pythium and rhizoctonia. And it also helps make nutrients more available in the root zone for young seedlings. So it's more of a fungicidal activity with a little bit of a growth boost. But it won't take care of your corn seed maggots, so there's that. And then just a disclaimer, as with any biological based seed treatment, a lot depends on what's already going on in your soil, how much disease pressure you have, how heavily you crop, how healthy your soil is in general. And it's something you have to try it out and see if it works in your soil type. I can tell you that we've tried it in many of our fields, in many locations here in Maine, and with a lot of growers in different parts of the country. And we've seen pretty dramatic results just about everywhere we've tried it. We can't recommend it enough. Give the 1r treatment a try.
We're back at our cold soil emergence test here at our farm in Albion, Maine. It's now June 6th. These seeds went in the ground about a month ago now. I showed you some of these plots earlier when the plants were smaller, I wanted to come back and just have a look before we till this trial up to show you how they turned out. I've got two sets of plots right next to each other here. These are two early varieties that are very popular and generally very reliable, generally very good seed quality. Again, we've pushed this a little bit beyond where we would normally push sweet corn, 50°F soil, not wise. This is 'Solstice' here. And this is pretty typical for any variety, even good seed quality when you're planting into really cold, wet soil, untreated seed. And here it is with organic 1r seed treatment. Very dramatic difference, pretty much a full stand here and not a lot to work with, on your left.
And then this is 'Kickoff XR', generally comes in about a day later than 'Solstice'. Also a great early variety. This is not indicative of the general quality of the seed. It just didn't do very well in that very cold soil. And right next to it, we have a plot of 'Kickoff XR' treated with the organic 1r. And it's doing great. So just wanted to show you these plants with a little more size on them and give you an idea of what kind of a stand you can get if you're using the organic 1r treatment.
View all of our Organic 1r Corn Seed