Corn or maize is one of the leading food, feed and industrial crops today. This is the oldest grain plant on our planet. Many countries in the world where corn grows are exporters of this grain.
Wild maize is native to Central and South America. Grain was brought to Europe by Columbus back in 1496. The crop came to Russia during the Russian-Turkish War in 1768-1774.Its spread throughout the country began from Bessarabia, where maize was cultivated everywhere.
In Turkey, maize is called “kokoroz” - a tall plant. Thanks to N. Khrushchev, active crop selection began in our country in the 60s of the last century. Due to the development of a large number of zoned varieties and hybrids, corn is now grown in Siberia, the Urals, and the Far East.
How does corn grow?
Corn in Russia is cultivated for grain and green fodder. The main advantage of culture is yield: corn can produce 4.5 or more tons of grain and 17 tons of green mass per 1 hectare. Corn grain is used to produce flour, starch, ethanol, dextrin, glucose, syrup, oil, and vitamin E. It is canned, processed into cereals and flakes, and used for the production of animal feed.
Corn is a tall annual herbaceous crop. The stem can reach a height of 3 m or more. Today, low-growing varieties are also widely cultivated. The stem can reach 7 cm in diameter. The leaves are large, about 1 m long and 10 cm wide, linear-lanceolate in shape. There can be from 8 to 42 leaves on 1 stem.
The plant has a powerful, well-developed root system that penetrates the soil to a depth of 1 m or more. Roots can also form on the lower nodes of the stem - to additionally provide the plant with moisture and nutrients, as well as support.
Maize is a monoecious, wind-pollinated plant, so its flowers are unisexual: male flowers form panicles at the top of the stems, and female flowers form cobs located in the axils of the leaves. The yield is determined depending on the variety. Corn on 1 shoot can form 1-2 cobs (or more) 4-50 cm long and 2-10 cm in diameter.
The weight of the cob can be 30-500 g.The cobs are sealed in leaf-shaped wrappers, and only long pistillate styles protrude out. The wind carries pollen from the male inflorescences to the pistils of the cobs, on which, after fertilization, fruits - caryopses - are formed. The plant cannot self-pollinate. In small areas, manual pollen collection and pollination may be necessary.
The grains have a cubic or round shape, they are planted tightly to each other and are located in rows on the core of the cob. One cob can contain up to 1 thousand grains. In most cases, the fruits are yellow, but there are also varieties with red, purple, blue and even black grains.
In order to learn to distinguish varieties, you can use the description and photo provided on the package of seeds; Growing corn, depending on the variety, lasts 90-150 days. Shoots appear 10-12 days after planting the seeds in the soil. Initially, this is a heat-loving crop that germinates at +8…10 ºС and develops at +20…24 ºС.
There are a large number of regionalized and adapted varieties and hybrids with a short growing season. They are able to grow and bear fruit in the cold climate of Siberia and other regions at lower temperatures and withstand frosts down to -3 ºС.
Corn is a light-loving crop. Lighting is especially important at the beginning of the growing season. Therefore, the optimal sowing method is square-cluster, in which the shadowing of each other by the shoots is minimal.
Maize is dependent on soil aeration. Loosening and other soil cultivation are necessary to obtain a good harvest. The culture is dependent on moisture supply. In hot weather, 1 plant can absorb more than 1 liter of water.
The large volume of green mass and its high content of monosaccharides involved in lactic fermentation during the silage process is the reason that corn is the main silage crop in our country.
Maize is classified as a row crop. In crop rotation, it takes the place of a predecessor of grain and leguminous crops or fallow planting when grown for green fodder.
Despite the fact that the plant greatly depletes the soil and deteriorates its structure, it frees it from weeds, many diseases and pests. In the south of the country, corn is sown in repeat crops.
What kind of soil does corn need?
The main areas for cultivating maize for grain for the production of compound feed and for the food industry are Central Asia, Transcaucasia, North Caucasus, Central Black Earth region and the Volga region. This is due to the fact that the best soils for growing crops are fertile: black soil, floodplain river soils and structural field soils. Corn can grow on sandy loams, dark gray loams and peat bogs. The plant develops and bears fruit poorly on heavy clay, marshy, salty and acidic soils.
Corn is less demanding for green fodder, and therefore is cultivated everywhere, including in the Non-Black Earth Region, on peat swamp and sod-podzolic soils.
The crop requires soil with a neutral reaction; slightly acidic soils are also acceptable. To grow maize on podzolic, acidic soils, dolomite, wood ash and organic fertilizers (humus, compost, peat) are added before planting. With sufficient addition of organic and mineral corn fertilizers can be grown on sandy soil.
Due to the characteristics of the root system, the plant requires loose soil with good aeration, enriched with oxygen.
On soils infested with weeds, especially rose bitter, creeping wheatgrass, sow thistle, and other rhizomatous and root shoot weeds, corn grows poorly. This is especially important at the seedling emergence stage.
When growing grain for the food industry, the soil must have enough phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sulfur, iron, magnesium, manganese, boron, chlorine, iodine, zinc, copper and other substances.
The mineral composition of the soil is of greatest importance at the beginning of the growing season, as well as at the stage of cob formation and milky ripeness of the grain. Timely application of organic and mineral fertilizers is an important condition for obtaining high yields and healthy corn grains for the food industry.
In the first half of the growing season, the plant especially needs nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and after the start of flowering - phosphorus and potassium. Excess nitrogen retards grain formation.
How long does corn grow?
The length of the growing season for maize depends on the variety or hybrid of the plant. It can last from 90 to 150 days. Since Russia is 95% a risky farming area, early ripening varieties are the most popular. In this case, the grain has time to ripen before the onset of cold weather.
In the Urals, when sown in open ground, even the earliest ripening varieties do not have time to ripen, so here maize is cultivated for green fodder. To obtain grain, preliminary cultivation of seedlings is practiced, although this method is not used in large volumes. Seedlings are planted from the second half of May. Harvest occurs in August-September.
To grow corn in the North-West region and, in particular, in the Leningrad region, first-generation hybrids (F1 Candle, Spirit, Trophy and others) with a short growing season are used, the cobs of which ripen 70-75 days after emergence. For small areas, the seedling cultivation method is used. In the southern part of the region, varieties with a ripening period of 90-100 days can be cultivated. Corn grown in the Pskov region is sown in open ground in May and harvested in the first weeks of September.
Can corn grow without human intervention?
There are 6 plant species in the genus corn, but only 1 of them is sweet corn suitable for human consumption. There are no wild varieties of it that can grow without pre-cultivation in the open ground.
In abandoned areas you can find plants that grow on their own. In this case, seeds from unharvested or overripe and spilled cobs germinate without tillage, in open ground.
Over time, with repeated self-sowing, the characteristic properties of the variety are lost, and the use of such corn becomes possible only for feeding farm animals. The conditions necessary for complete grain ripening rarely occur in this case.
Where does corn grow: producing countries
Corn is cultivated with varying degrees of success in many countries around the world with suitable climates and conditions created by both nature and man. The leaders in grain production are most of the countries of the American continent, Asia and Europe.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the leaders in the production and export of corn are Ukraine (6th place) and Russia (9th place). European Union member countries produce about 6.5% of global corn grain production, while CIS members collectively produce only 4.6%.
Corn exporting countries
The leading role in maize production belongs to the United States. This country produces more than 380 thousand tons of corn grain annually.
Other leading countries in corn cultivation (according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization):
- China (more than 230 thousand tons).
- Brazil (more than 64 thousand tons).
- Argentina (more than 39.5 thousand tons).
- Mexico (about 28 thousand tons).
- Ukraine (about 28 thousand tons).
In which country does corn grow best?
Since the historical homeland of maize is Mexico and the Caribbean coast, the crop grows best in countries with similar climates and soils. Moreover, only the USA, Canada and France, which are among the top ten leading exporters of corn grain, have high crop yields. In other countries, volumes are achieved by increasing sown areas.
Among the countries trading maize in the world, the best yield is in Greece - 13.5 t/ha, the Netherlands - 11.8 t/ha; while the average yield in EU countries in 2017 was only 6.91 t/ha. In the USA, about 10 tons of grain are harvested per hectare. At the same time, the yield grows by at least 1% per year. The same applies to Western Europe.
In Russia, despite unfavorable conditions in most of the territory, the yield is within the global average - 5.6 t/ha. And in China there is a downward trend in yields.
Fine corn grows in their original homeland: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina.These countries produce and export corn grits and flour.
Where does corn grow in Russia?
A large selection of zoned hybrids and varieties allows you to sow corn in many regions of the Russian Federation. Basically, grain crops are grown in the North Caucasus, Volga region, Central Black Earth Region, southern regions of the Far East and Siberia and in other regions. And for silage and green fodder - almost everywhere, with the exception of the extreme northern regions and the Northern Economic Region. The total crop area is about 3 million hectares.
Warm black soil regions are the best for cultivation, and the Russian Federation, despite its climatic conditions, is one of the leaders in the production and export of maize in the world. Krasnodar region is the first in the top five producers of corn grain.
Today in Russia the area under crop cultivation is about 2800 thousand hectares.
Where does corn grow for grain in Russia?
Main corn growing areas in the Russian Federation:
- Krasnodar Territory (3368 thousand tons - 34% of the gross volume of grain).
- Stavropol Territory (932 thousand tons - 9.5%).
- Belgorod region (747 thousand tons - 7.6%).
- Rostov region (632 thousand tons - 6.4%).
- Kursk region (529 thousand tons - 5.4%).
- Voronezhskaya (518 thousand tons - 5.3%).
The soil and climatic conditions in these areas are optimal for growing maize.
More than 1% of the total volumes are produced by such corn growing areas of Russia as Kabardino-Balkaria, the Republics of Tatarstan and North Ossetia, Tambov, Lipetsk, Saratov regions, and Mordovia.
The best yield indicators were recorded in the Moscow (70.6 c/ha), Kaliningrad (67.4 c/ha) and Oryol (63.7 c/ha) regions.
