Corn: A Gateway To Nutritious Life!

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Whether you consume tortilla, popcorn, or polenta, corn remains a crucial ingredient in your meal. And why shouldn’t it be? Corn has the perfect combination of starch, calorie, water, and protein to form a complete meal. Indeed, the manganese and phosphorus from the popcorn, similarly Vitamin B6 and potassium from the sweet corn, act as significant energy sources. That’s not it! Corn is one of the best food items that pave the way for a healthy life! Let’s establish this statement by explaining to you some important facts.

  • You all must have heard about anemia, deficiency of red blood cells in the body. Now, that is a common disease in the people who skip their meals quite a lot. The Vitamin B12 and iron present in the corn helps your body in producing red blood cells. Therefore, corn provides all the essential nutrients to your body and prevents you from having anemia.
  • No matter what others think, sweat is a reward for an athlete. However, the excretion of sweat leads to the loss of energy from your body. Don’t worry, all you need to do is consume corn! It is a complex carbohydrate, so it would take time to break and digest in your body. As a result, your body will have enough energy for one more practice session.
  • Do you feel that consuming protein and fat is not bringing any change to your body? How about including corn in your meal? Think about it, corn is a rich source of vitamins, protein, and most importantly, carbohydrate. Therefore, you should include corn in your meal to remain fit and active.

Corn has become an essential food item all over the world, owing to its multiple benefits. In fact, people are harvesting corn in their house to avail of the first-hand advantage. You can also look forward to harvesting corn wherever you want. However, there are a few essential points that contribute to producing high-quality corn. Let’s have a look at these points in detail.

1. Best Time To Grow Corn

During winters, the layers of the plant are covered by the frost. Now, the frost prevents many plants from growing, and corn is no different from them. After the winter, when springs hit the parks, this is the best time to grow corn. Actually, corn requires the temperature of the soil to be around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Moreover, that can only be achieved when the frost is absent from the surface for a long time.

Therefore, the best time to grow corn is the spring season! Indeed, a few weeks before the frost is considered to be the best time to grow corn in your house. Who knows, if the season is long, you might get a high yield!

Now, the time might be different in every part of the world. However, the conditions for growing corn remain the same.

2. Spacing Between The Plants

When you plant a seed, pollination is crucial for proper growth. Therefore, the distance between the crops should be adequate to allow the plants to self-pollinate. The corn plant can grow up to 60 cm, so this should be the spacing criteria of corn plants.

Another thing to notice is that the seed should be placed 2.5 cm deep inside the soil. The reason behind it is water penetration through the mounds. Moreover, that should be the exact height of the inverted hills, as well. Now, you simply have to place the seeds in a cell formation with adequate rows and columns. Remember, do not sow the seeds in a single long row, as it will prevent pollination.

3. Maintenance Of The Plant 

Now, this is the most crucial step to avail of the high-quality corn in your house. High-maintenance will enhance the productivity and the size of the product. Now, what are the essential criterias for high maintenance? Here are a few suggestions for you.

  • Corn requires moisture for growth. Since the corn grows in hot weather, the water evaporates quickly, leaving the plant dry. Therefore, you should provide moisture to the soil to maintain its quality.
  • Once you witness tassels in your plant, it’s time to sprinkle water from another direction. If you water the plant overhead, it will hit the tassel during pollination. The will lead to fewer kernels in the corn. Therefore, sprinkle the water into the soil to accelerate pollination.
  • When it comes to the nutrient required for the growth of corn, nitrogen is the key ingredient. So, how can you provide nitrogen to the plant? The best way would be adding rich compost to the plant or adding tea. What it will do is enhance the height of the corn with fully grown kernels.
  • You can place other plants during the growth of corn in your house. Plants like potatoes, peas, and beans are ideal for the situation. However, avoid planting berries and pole beans. These plants extract the moisture content from the corn and hence alter its productivity.
  • You can cover the ears of the plants with the paper bag as soon as pollination ends.

4. Pesticides For The Plant

The worst enemy for the growth of corn are wireworms, corn borers, flea beetles, cutworms, and corn earworms. They damage the crop and lead to its stunted growth. What can you do to prevent these pests from harming the growth of corn? One way is handpicking the pests and removing or killing them on the spot. However, this process won’t work in every instance.

On the other hand, you can infuse mineral oil on the tip of the ears of the plants. What this will do is suffocate the pests entering the surface and kill them instantly. Therefore, your crop won’t be hampered by pests. However, you can still use the handpicking method for larger pests. It is much more efficient than the other procedure.

5. How To Fight Diseases In The Plant?

Corn smut is the most significant disease that occurs because of fungal and bacterial infections. If the corn is infected smut, the kernels turn black and swell up instantly. You should plug the plant without wasting any time and throw it away.

Apart from that, you should not plant any seedlings at the same spot for 2 years. The smut spores remain the active spot for infection for a few months.

Stewart’s wilt is another infection that can occur during the growth of the plant. During this, the leaves turn yellow, and the plant leads to diminution. Agricultural lime and wood ash can turn out to be the remedy for this disease. Don’t forget to apply it around your plants!

Corn Diseases

6. Harvesting The Plant

Usually, corn is ready for harvest within 100 days of the plantation. However, you should make sure that the plant is ready for harvest before you plug it. Now, how to check whether your corn is ready or not? Here are the steps for that.

  • Corn is wrapped by a covering known as ears. Now, to harvest the corn, the ears should be dark green.
  • The silks of the corn should be brown in color.
  • Apart from that, kernels should be soft.
  • An individual kernel should spill out a white liquid when squeezed.

These are the quality checks that you should perform before harvesting the corn. The moment corn passes all the tests, you can expect a high yield.

7. Storing The Corn

There are different ways to eat corn, and predominantly that decides how you store it. Now, corn is generally eaten fresh after keeping it in a refrigerator for 2-4 days. Similarly, blanched corn can be stored in the fridge for about 3-6 months.

The reason we keep the corn in the fridge is to maintain the required temperature. Actually, corn requires a specific temperature to attain sweetness, which is relatively low. Apart from that, you can also wrap the corn in a pile of husk to maintain the temperature.

Corn A Gateway To Nutritious Life

High-Quality And Healthy Corn Is Ready For You!

The entire process is crucial for the perfect growth of the corn in your house. These steps are essential if you want to avail yourself of all the nutrients while enjoying the corn. In fact, even a single defect can decrease the nutrient quotient of the corn. So, what is the benefit of taking the risk when you can enjoy perfect corn? So, whether you decide to process it into tortillas or preserve it for sweet corn, you have got a key ingredient available at your house. When are you planning to have it?

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