How to grow sweet corn in a raised garden

This year my family decided to raise a couple of rows of sweet corn in our 8x6 foot raised garden. Our top soil in eastern Nebraska isn't very thick and after about 6" of top soil it turns to a hard clay soil that isn't very good for drainage. The first year our garden completely flooded due to lots of rain and poor drainage. Then in 2008 I built a raised garden with instructions I found on the internet. The results were semi mixed last year, but poor results were due to late planting and poor shading.

Here are a few keys to successfully growing sweet corn in a raised garden:

1) Plant seeds 6" apart - this way by having them closer together each row can provide shade and wind protection

2) Plant rows 1ft apart - typically it is recommended to plant them 30-36 inches a part, but usually in a raised garden you don't have that much room and the close rows provide weather element protection

3) Plant as close to May 1st as possible - this way you have the greatest amount of time for your corn to root during cooler time and earlier in the spring. This way your corn can properly establish a root base too.

4) Plant your seed 2" below the surface - this depth is the ideal depth for your corn to not be too deep to emerge quickly and not to shallow to properly establish a good root base.

5) Plant your sweet corn when the morning forecasts for the 10-14 outlook calls for 45degree plus LOWS - besides regular water ground temp has the second greatest impact on production of good sweet corn.

Hopefully, during this growing season your sweet corn production will be plentiful and by around the fourth of July you'll be enjoying some juicy sweet corn.

Here are a few pics of my raised garden and sweet corn starting to emerge.