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Planting Corn & Beans

WKP - Todd

WKP - Todd

New Member
Has anyone ever tried planting beans and corn on the same field; basically every-other-row? Considering trying this, just curious to know if anyone else has had any success with this? Not going to pick, just for my deer.
 
I highly doubt it will work. Notice when left over corn is in a bean field. Stalks grow but no ears. I see no reason to double plant in this fashion. I'm not sure what you would gain. Just separate your plot and do it that way.
 
Thats because bean fields dont get the nitrogen that the corn needs. It will work if you fertilize for corn and have 2-4 rows of beans then 2-4 corn and so on, because I think the corn would shade the beans too much every other row. Getting late for corn, better hurry
 
Todd I have done it before. You can drill the beans or broadcast them and then come back and plant corn.
 
We do it every year. We've done every other row and we've mixed them right in the rows too. Both ways work very well and they both seem to grow better when mixed. Plus the corn protects the beans from overbrowsing a bit. Here's a couple pics from last year with mixed rows. We don't have real high deer densities by us so corn and beans work well.

 
Our neighbors on the farm next to ours do this, works very well for them. They drill in corn, then come back and drill in the beans between the corn rows.
 
We do it every year here as well, not every other row, but the wideth of the drill or like other's posted split the drill, work's great's!!!
 
Well, I tried the 4x4 method (4 rows of corn, 4 beans) - all planted together / same time. Everything is starting to pop out of the ground, so we'll see how it does.

First time I've ever planted my own, so it will likely look like Helen Keller planted them while wasted!
 
I would say more depends on the amount of acres you are planting (more ag stuff next to it?), location and deer density. Let's say it's 2 acres in a secluded location and you had a medium to high amount of deer- I doubt you'll have anything come October or Nov. 5 acres, probably go a while. Corn is the limiting factor here, corn in general having a tough time getting to late season. I found with the beans, they were shaded out by the corn pretty badly and did not yield well. i did this a long time ago and won't do it again. But, i won't do corn period for a plot anymore. I hope you planted a lot of acres. Hope it goes well.
 
On a normal year when I leave 3-5 acres of corn stand, out of a 12 acre field, harvested early november, it will last thru january, unless we get deep snow by early december. Last year all corn was harvested around me by the end of september, along with a poor yield, everything was wiped out by early december. 10 years ago leaving the same amount stand, I would still have corn in april which caused problems replanting. I had to mow it 2 or 3 weeks before, to get it all ate. Now all the deer are conditioned to feed there and put alot more pressure on it.
 
sureshot said:
Skip, why no corn? We've had pretty good luck with ours in recent years.
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One guys experience and opinion, I'll give you the more complex reasoning many overlook. There is solutions for some of these. I personally just think corn is not a good choice....
1) Corn is expensive to do properly. To really have late season food in an AVERAGE year of rain, grown without more crops next to it.... A guy really needs about 10 acres. Done properly, you're in the $2-3k range for that plot.
2) Corn is very fussy, can't tolerate drought as well as beans and summer plots (august) don't have all the failure issues. Failure issues with corn are from many avenues, some of which are not realized until Sept or Oct when it's too late.
3) Like 6x6 said, the more you have deer trained to area, the diminishing amount of success you'll have with the given area.
4) MY EXPERIENCE..... I rotated large plots between corn & beans. Each night for many years I would keep track of which plots had more deer & bucks, corn or beans. I usually found about 40-50 deer in my beans and 20-25 in my corn no matter which area I rotated them. late season that is. Beans were preferred.

I think corn is still great, no doubt. It's an awesome food source, it's just not what I'd choose for a hobby-food-plotter. If I were to do corn for an average guy, I'd only do it if the farmer would leave some up from his crop. I'd pay him for $1k to be left (say 200 bushels or so). You have no risk then. I'd then take all of my time and a fraction of the $ and use it for Dbltree's rotation. I still do plant beans but I also have enough area where I'm not AS CONCERNED with the beans surviving. But- beans are more cost effective to plant and can tolerate a lot more too. Even beans have issues though. hands down, for the average guy, I'd just bag corn & beans all together. You do Dbltree's rotation and I guarantee your mind will change. Your outlook on corn & beans will change and when you do corn & beans - it'll either be an expensive and vast area in addition to Dbltree's rotation OR you'll just have the farmer leave some up.

Just 1 guy's 2 cents. Corn is great but I just have too many concerns with it and I personally think there's far better options.
 
In-case anyone doesn't know this, I will let them know. If you have a pioneer production plant anywhere near you, they give away free seed (corn and beans) for wildlife plots. Can't harvest them, but the price is right. I even borrow the planter from our Pioneer here in town.

The only reason I attempted planting beans and corn on one field was because it is about a 5 acre field, so it should have enough of both to hopefully pull it through without getting completely destroyed. I also planted about 5 additional acres of corn only, so we'll see what does the best.

I've never had good luck with Beans so I will keep my fingers crossed. It's been sprayed, and getting some nitrogen this week. I'll keep you all posted on my results.
 
WKP - Todd said:
In-case anyone doesn't know this, I will let them know. If you have a pioneer production plant anywhere near you, they give away free seed (corn and beans) for wildlife plots. Can't harvest them, but the price is right. I even borrow the planter from our Pioneer here in town.

The only reason I attempted planting beans and corn on one field was because it is about a 5 acre field, so it should have enough of both to hopefully pull it through without getting completely destroyed. I also planted about 5 additional acres of corn only, so we'll see what does the best.

I've never had good luck with Beans so I will keep my fingers crossed. It's been sprayed, and getting some nitrogen this week. I'll keep you all posted on my results.
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That's a good deal!! 5 acres of beans should work well?

Corn, I have had mixed results for the same reasons as Skip mentioned. The best plot in my opinion is when the farmer leaves an area after harvest (an area of a much larger corn field). Otherwise the deer/coon/squirrels/turkeys take most of it before the snow flies.
 
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