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Sweet corn

Are there any landowners out there please .?

We have a fourteen acre field  which we rent out to a farmer ?

Last year he grew sweetcorn  not for the table but for green fuel .he now tells me he wants to grow sweetcorn year after year .I didn't have a problem with this ,after all I'm still getting payment for land i own.

Neighbours are now telling me this is wrong and that basically it's not allowed as it takes all the goodness out and the land ends up been very poor.

Can anyone advise please?

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  • Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    They grow it here very near to us every year, in the same fields, last year they tried one field with the plastic film on it, the others left as usual,  whilst the filmed one came up quicker, it all seemed to be the same by harvest time. What is that film that just soaks away into the ground?  Do we eat that, indirectly?

    They grow it for animal feed here I think.  

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090

    Growing the same crop year after year leads to depletion of minerals and nutrients and possible build up of pests.   I think you need to ask about how he or she plans to maintain soil quality.  Will they mulch, spread muck, grow a green manure in between?  How do they water?  What chemicals do they use against weeds and pests?

    Our beef cattle farmer neighbour grows wheat and sweetcorn every year but in a 3 year rotation with grass which then gets eaten by the cows when they go out to pasture in spring and summer.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • The problem with maize s that the majority of the ground is not covered so a lot of topsoil can be washed away by heavy rain.  If this grown year after year the damage can be quite extreme ... if the land has a slope some of the damage can be mitigated by the crop rows following the contour lines rather than going up and down the slope.  Another way is for the crop to be undersown with a low growing crop such as grass ... but a farmer growing maize for biofuel  every year is unlikely to do this. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889

    I think, but might well be wrong, that the "plastic" film they use is actually made from corn starch and is biodegradable.

    Devon.
  • Hostafan1 says:

    I think, but might well be wrong, that the "plastic" film they use is actually made from corn starch and is biodegradable.

    See original post

     Yes ... you're right Hosta ... this sort of stuff https://mulchorganic.co.uk/products/corn-starch-biodegradable-mulch-120cm-x-200m-organic 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889

    whew. 

    I thought I might have set myself up to be shot down in flames.

    Devon.
  • Wot!  You Hosta??? image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Hostafan1 says:

    whew. 

    I thought I might have set myself up to be shot down in flames.

    See original post

     Never dear! Although there have been a few, ?

    thanks for info about film on corn, with all this talk of plastics lately I did wonder. Although it does completely  disappear.  

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • granmagranma Posts: 1,933
    Thank you for all your answers this sweet corn is grown for bio fuel.and the farmer isn't feeding the land .I'm off to wap some knuckles :s
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