A. Recommended guidelines for growing sweet corn are found in Extension's Easy Gardening series on Sweet Corn (publication # L-1583). It covers all the basics of soil, fertilizer, planting, watering, care, problems, harvesting and cooking. You can obtain a copy at the Galveston County Extension Office.
With a 70- to 90-day turn around from planting to harvest, Spring planting could begin February 15. If you have room in your garden, plant again in three weeks, or when the first corn has 3 to 5 leaves. You can continue this schedule until June 15. In my garden, I plant four rows of Silver Queen around February 15. I should have corn in 88 days. I plant the second time with Argent during the first week of March and this should be ready in 86 days.
If very cool nights occur during the first plantings in Spring, germination may be spotty and I have had to replant bare spots. It's still worth the gamble, as you'll be rewarded with an early harvest of delicious sweet corn. I will continue to space plantings every three weeks until June 15, which should give me corn as late as September 9.
Extension's brochure Vegetable Varieties and Planting Dates (publication #GC104) lists a Fall schedule to plant corn from August 1 through September 10. I haven't tried this late date, but maybe it would work to extend harvest until November. There are times when Mother Nature takes away from the best laid plans, but again she sometimes smiles on gardeners.
Another suggestion for extending eating enjoyment comes from Janet Bachand Chadwicks' The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food. I had poor results last year with my type of freezing and preserving and feel some of the following will help us amateurs. To freeze unblanched corn in husks, place on cookie sheets in freezer for 48 hours. Then bag in large freezer bags. When ready to cook, husk frozen corn under cold water, place in cool water in covered pot, bring to boil for one minute, remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
Another suggestion from Janet is to husk, cut from cob, pack in boilable bags (add butter, if desired), press out air, seal, blanch in boiling water for 6 minutes, cool and freeze. By processing surpluses, we can enjoy our garden rewards for another four months.