Growing Methods and Key Technical Points for Fruit Corn
How is fruit corn grown? Please advise. Fruit corn is a type of sweet corn suitable for eating raw. Compared with ordinary sweet corn, its main characteristics are thin skin, abundant juice, crisp texture and sweetness; it can be eaten directly raw or cooked. There is no essential difference between fruit corn and sweet corn; ordinary sweet corn can all be eaten raw, ...
How is fruit corn grown? Please advise
Fruit corn is a type of sweet corn suitable for eating raw. Compared with ordinary sweet corn, its main characteristics are thin skin, abundant juice, crisp texture and sweetness; it can be eaten directly raw or cooked. There is no essential difference between fruit corn and sweet corn; ordinary sweet corn can all be eaten raw, only the taste varies in quality, and those with good taste are regarded by people as fruit corn. Therefore, in cultivation there is no dedicated fruit corn variety. At present, the sweet corn varieties suitable as fruit corn mainly include Chaotian 2018 from the Dongyang Corn Institute, Jinyin Micui from the Ningbo Seed Company, and Zhefengtian No. 2, newly bred by the Crop Institute of the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Zhejiang Fengqi Agricultural Products Co., Ltd. The cultivation of fruit corn is similar to that of sweet corn, and generally the following main points should be grasped:
1. Isolated planting and sowing in stages. To prevent cross-pollination with other types of corn and reduce quality, isolated planting is required. Isolation can be achieved by planting distance (over 300 m) and flowering period (over 30 days), and barriers such as hills, forests and houses can also be used for isolation. Fruit corn has a short suitable harvesting period and is difficult to keep fresh; sowing in stages allows harvesting and marketing in batches. Fruit corn can be sown from late March to early August. With heat-preserving facilities in early spring, sowing can be appropriately advanced, but sowing between late May and mid-June should be avoided, because corn sown in this period has its flowering and pollination period coinciding with the summer drought of July and August, which easily causes bald tips, missing kernels or empty stalks.
2. Careful land preparation and sowing after sprouting. To grow fruit corn, land should be prepared as carefully as for growing vegetables, and fields with relatively high fertility and sufficient fertilizer and water, of sandy loam or loam soil, should be chosen. Fruit corn seeds are shrivelled, with small endosperm, and the germination and emergence rate
is low and the seedlings are weak. To strive for uniform, complete and strong seedlings, whether by direct sowing or by raising seedlings and transplanting, it is best to sow after sprouting.
3. Reasonable close planting and scientific fertilization. Fruit corn has flat leaves and a loose plant type, and the density should be 3500-4000 plants per mu. In fertilization, apply base fertilizer appropriately, apply seedling fertilizer early, apply ear fertilizer heavily, use nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in combination, and advocate increasing the application of organic fertilizer. For fields of medium fertility, the total amount of chemical fertilizer should be controlled at about 15 kg of pure nitrogen, 6 kg of phosphorus (P2O5) and 6 kg of potassium (K2O).
4. Fine management and timely harvest. Fruit corn grows weakly at the seedling stage and is susceptible to pests in the later stage, so field management must be done well. The main tasks are checking seedlings and filling gaps after emergence and weed control; at the seedling and middle stages, remove tillers and surplus small ears; at the middle and later stages, pay attention to controlling pests such as the corn borer. The harvesting period of fruit corn is about 3 days earlier than that of ordinary sweet corn. About 20 days after pollination, the best harvesting period can be grasped in time according to the color of the silks and tasting in the field.
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