How to Plant Whole Corn

Plan the location for your corn rows. If you are planting other vegetables, place the corn rows at the north end of the garden, going east to west. This ensures that the mature corn stalks do not shade smaller vegetable plants.

Dig up the ground soil, using a garden shovel, down to about a foot. Make sure to remove any stones or other types of debris from the soil.

Pour a 2-inch layer of organic compost over the top of the worked ground soil. Use your shovel to work it into the ground soil.

Rake the nutrient-rich soil even.

Make a minimum of four consecutive garden rows. Corn is pollinated by wind. If you plant more than one type of corn, it will cross-pollinate and the corn ears will be a mixture of the two varieties.

Use the point of one side of the hoe. Drag it along the ground, creating a horizontal line, going east to west, that is about 3 inches deep and as long as you would like the row to be. These indentations are called moats.

Create a second row, in the same manner, a foot to the south of the first one. Continue creating rows until you have four or more. This is referred to as a block of rows, which makes for productive pollination.

Poke holes with your finger approximately 1 inch deep and four to five inches apart along the center of the rows between the moats.

Place a whole corn seed into each hole and push soil over the top to cover them.

Moisten the planted rows gently with a sprayer nozzle. A forceful spray could dislodge the seeds. Keep the soil moist until the seeds germinate. At that time, you may begin watering directly into the moats without the nozzle. Water once a day, or more often if the climate becomes very dry and hot.