Weeding around corn plants

Weeds compete for nutrients in your corn patch, so if you can keep it weed-free, your plants will reward you with a more robust crop.

Properly preparing your soil is an excellent preventive measure against the emergence of weeds. When you till or cultivate the area where you’ll plant corn, remove weeds and debris. You’ll likely find that the first few weeks after planting are the only time you’ll be pulling up weeds in your corn patch.

Once your corn plants have started growing, the space in between plants will fill in—and that will smother most weeds. Healthy corn plants actually prevent the need to weed!

If weeds come up between your more mature corn plants during the season, work the soil around the base of the plants with a hoe or pull the weeds by hand. Work in the morning on a sunny day when the soil is dry, and only hoe deep enough to kill weeds and not damage the plant’s roots. Remember—corn plant roots are fragile!

Have you found any good techniques for weeding around your corn plants? How do you prevent weeds from taking over in the first place? Please tell us how you handle weeding your corn garden.