Q.REAL Bad Corn Harvest
On a whim, I planted some popcorn kernels and discovered that they actually did sprout into corn stalks. However, when I transplanted them, they stopped growing and just started pollinating when they were around two feet tall. There was one that grew around five feet tall and grew large ears but when I tried to pick the corn, I got a grand total of 9 kernels of corn. I know I did something very wrong and I would like to grow sweet corn, but I need some help on that. What happened to make the corn harvest so lousy?
Several things could have happened. Corn will tassel early when put under stress. From what you describe, I would suspect the early tasseling and the then poor harvest was due to the transplanting. Corn does not transplant well and the disturbance to the roots during transplanting would have delayed and stunted everything after that. In the future, try direct seeding the corn and you should see an improvement in the results.
