Maize with very few kernels

ABlackwell

Hello.

can anyone please explain why the maize plants we reared have very few kernels on their cobs? I have never seen anything like this before.
Thank you

I am a new user so I cannot post a picture.

my3cents

How did you plant them? They are one of the few crops where they are recommended to be planted in a block rather than a row so the plants pollinate better.

ABlackwell

Six rows of six plants. 3 each of sweet corn and indian corn. These happened to be the only ones that germinated (in the greenhouyse) for us this spring prior to planting out.

Zzippy

Sounds like poor pollination. Did you shake the plants to spread the pollen? We grew them for the first time this year and made sure to shake the plants when the flowers at the top were shedding pollen, and used sheets of cardboard to waft air around while doing so to make sure the pollen wafted around and didn't just fall straight down. Worked 100% for us, very few cobs with missing kernels. The pollen needs to get onto the silks on the ears in order to get plenty of kernels in the cob.

Mooooo

Fertilizer/ dung etc.?