Sweet corn weed control

[Trent M]

Is there something that can be used for weed control in sweet corn? I always manually weeded before, but the Cub's are so fun, the garden has grown much, much bigger. There is no way I could weed all the sweet corn by hand. So what do you guys use to help control the weeds in the sweet corn rows? I cultivate between the rows, but there's still lots of weeds in the rows between the corn.

Thanks!

[Virginia Mike]

2-4-D is a old one that is cheap. It does broad leaf weeds.

[Don McCombs]

http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/MNFruit&VegNews/vol5/vol5n6.htm

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~taber/Extension/Progress%20Rpt%2005/SwtCornHerbicide.pdf

[Bill Hudson]

Trent,

Try asking your question of the good folks at your local Illinois Cooperative Extension office. You will find them here:
Hamilton County Office
100 S. Jackson
Courthouse Basement
McLeansboro, IL 62859
Phone: 618-643-3416
FAX: 618-643-3206

Chances are pretty good that you have driven past the office once or twice in the last month, given that you live in McLeansboro. They can give you the latest information on what works locally. Good luck.

Bill

[SONNY]

2-4-D, over the top before corn is 4 inches tall----OR spray later knee to waist high BUT ya gotta use drop nozzles on your sprayer, or use hand sprayer and dont get spray into the heart area of the corn,---just below the leaves!----takes out broadleaf weeds, BUT not grasses!! thanks; sonny

[TJG]

In larger spaces and between rows I will use round-up carefully. I will either dribble it out of a hand-held pump-sprayer, or I also have a 1 inch sponge paint brush taped on the end of a stick and will walk around and dab it on the plants I want to get rid of. I carry a plastic cup with round-up in it and just dab it here and there. I get the concentrated 50% round up and use 3 ounces per gallon. It kills the roots much better than I can with a hoe (especially grass and thistle), but our crops are not "round-up ready" as I have found out here and there. About every 3 days I walk around and hit the areas I missed before. My gardens aren't large (130 feet x 50 feet, and 40 feet x 20 feet) so this works well for me.

I thought the cub did a nice job cultivating until the plants got too high. A tiller doesn't work well for me, but others use them for weed control. My soil is very heavy and the tiller just digs in and makes holes.

You can also weed whip the areas if they are very thick. You don't want them to go to seed. Then later when the crop is out spray all of the weeds with round-up.

Todd