Corn Planting Row Spacing

Planting and Spacing Corn Seed

• Corn seed is planted with 30-inch spacing between rows of corn. However, home gardeners should consult the corn seed package. Various hybrids will have somewhat different requirements. For instance, narrower spacing is recommended for dwarf varieties. Wider row spacing is likely to reduce yields, as corn stalks must be close enough to each other to allow pollination. Additionally, it's best to plant several short, parallel rows of corn than one long row---for example, four parallel 4-foot rows instead of one 16-foot-long row---to further facilitate pollination. Isolate sweet corn from popcorn stalks to prevent cross-pollination.

  In recent years, studies investigating yields of corn crops planted in rows spaced significantly closer together have resulted in conflicting findings. In an article published in Volume 94 of the "Agronomy Journal," Widdicombe et al concluded that closer spacing could increase yields up to 4 percent. Such increases are of more significance to large-scale farmers than to home gardeners, so experimentation might be worthwhile.