maize planting

[Tractorman810]

noticed over the last few years that more and more maize seems to be getting planted under polly sheeting , the plant forcing its way through , question is, is there any benifit to this?? on my regular cornwall drive theres several fields that were planted arround the same time as these polly ones, but no polly put on, and they are all at the same growth height near as??? just wondering how the costs weigh in, as we never did maize on ash tree, and its a failrly new thing to see this way, really expanding over the last few years

[Massey Boy]

From what i know it dosnt give you much in yeild you can just harvest earlyer, i was told if you put a 100 acres under plastic it cost the same as 110 acres normally. I dunno if what i said is right just what ive been told

[Gav836]

Our neighbour planted it under plastic two years ago but only the areas that he was planning to combine for the grain, the areas that he planned to clamp were drilled without. Both came through at the same time but within 3 weeks the maize under the plastic was considerably further forward than that without. I would imagine it proved a costly exercise as he's never done it since.

[Tractorman810]

i recon the fields i see were drilled within a week of each other, and they look the same growth wise, it must cost more like you say gav, but it seems to be getting more common this way, more like this now than plain drilled

[Coxy]

the main thing about planting it with plastic is that you will get more crobs than without

also if your land is high it will have it grow better

i hear the cost is a bit more to

around me it 50/50

[unkelfergus]

The only stuff under plastic near us is 500 acres of sweetcorn Sean.

To my knowledge there is no maize grown under plastic at all in this area.

[Tractorman810]

this is 100% maize, dont think i have seen sweetcorn grown this way to be honest, so bar possable slightly higer yeilds, and maybe a week or 2 quicker growth??? theres not really much to it compaired to cost it seems

[unkelfergus]

I'm not saying it isn't maize,....just saying theres none under plastic here.

Must say that the sweetcorn is miles ahead of the maize though,....there are some pretty poor crops around here in desperate need of some water,....of which we had a bit yesterday and more showers forecast this week.

[Coxy]

have a look here

http://www.samco.ie/index.php?p=research-data

[TM190]

All under plastic about me.. Was told it was about the climate, It wasn't warm enough to grow it without it..

[Deere-est]

Min 10deg C soil temp to plant maize, the plastic warms the soil so may bring an earlier planting window, or in a dry year turn the heat under the plastic to make condensation for the plants to take up. Two guesses anyway.

[Jdeere6910]

Pretty much as everyone has sadi before, better growth and yeild etc, we looked at growing some a few years ago under plastic and the cost was £100 an acre to lay the plastixc and spray before hand, so expensive

[robbo]

Sorry to hijack Sean's thread but as this is a question about maize I thought I would keep it all in one place ;) :D

My question is about weed control in maize and what chemicals do you use nowadays? In the late 70's when I was in the business the main chemicals were Simazine and Atrazine, I don't know if these are still in use or whether they are now considered to be too toxic and long lasting.

I ask the question because the photos below are a field that I pass on my way to work and I wonder what can be done and if it will ever produce a worthwhile crop?

And a close up of the rows

I think that the farmer has left it too long and the subsequent crop will be stunted and hardly worth the time and effort that it has taken to grow.

\ \ \ \

[Light Land]

You guys can't use them chemicals now Rob,the kiwi's still do mind you.It's a realy good way of keeping your land clean Atrazine and when use's spearingly I don't think it's too bad on the old fish.

That crop is a real W T F paddock,the mazie will never come to much now.Organic maize is cleaner than that.The day you plant a crop it's up to you to let that crop grow out to it's full genetic potentail as best you can so there's more to harvest,I don't see why even a 1/2 rate of round up was'nt used before the maize came up just to ward off the weeds for a while.

[Jdeere6910]

We spray our maize twice before it gets tall, that keeps any weeds down and we do have fairly clean maize fields. Im not sure what we spray with, can find out though