Can I grow corn on my lawn?

I assume the root competition would prevent the corn to grow much. Salad plants self seed onto my lawn and they grow but not much.

If you can keep it watered it should be fine, as well as nitrogen (manures?). Gabe brown plants something like 27 different plants with his corn crops. He plants stuff thats low enough that he can still use commercial harvesting techniques. After harvest he lets the cows loose to eat it and fertilize it. Pretty nifty.

I have lots of horse manure to get rid of. If I can make small holes in the lawn, plant the corn, surround with horse manure, let it hopefully grow and harvest, then cut them back down to grass level for the grass to recover over winter, then that would be my ideal scenario.

Last year I tried planting corn into an established pasture which was mainly grass with a healthy number of wild flowers.  I mowed it really low and poked the corn down 2" or so.  Many of them sprouted but none ever got over 8".  I think the competition was just too fierce.  

If they were planted at the same time as the grasses and flowers, maybe they'd've done just fine.

If I were to try it again, I'd prepare the autumn before by laying down a stripe of cardboard where each row of corn will be the next spring.  Cover that with lasagna mulch, dirt, compost, etc and cover it with mulch. That will smother the existing grass.  Then in the spring, plant away.  If you're in a warmer climate (or maybe even in a colder one) you could try a cover crop in the meantime that fixes some nitrogen for the upcoming corn crop.

I planted one packet of Country Gentleman corn a few years ago. That's a white corn and an heirloom, which was the reason for my choice. I planted it next door which is an empty lot. I mowed a small plot, which was my soil preparation. I poked a hole with a pointed stick and dropped a seed, into the clay with no black topsoil on top. The corn grew somewhat, some plants were stunted. Some produced a cob. We harvested a few cobs which my wife refused to eat. I saved one ear, for seed, which I replanted similarly the next year with even worse results. We used some of the stalks for fall decorations.

I didn't want the owner to have much of a complaint, the reason for my poor effort. I assume if I'd have mulched a couple inches of well composted manure, in my case mushroom manure that I'd have had a much better crop. If I'd dug it in I'd have done even better. As it is I can't believe the deer ignored it, no losses to mice. There's at least a half dozen deer pass through there several times a day. Usually at dinner time they show up fairly regularly. Maybe it just wasn't up to the quality they demand!

The type of grass you are planting into and it’s condition is going to make a big difference. I don’t think it’d ever work too well with any kind of sod.

Why don’t you want to till it? You could just smother it with mulcph this summer to be ready next spring.

I am wondering the same thing but not limited to only corn , if we can master gardening directly in lawns without disturbing the lawns esthetic it could look really nice and clean before, during, after planting and harvesting.

Corn would be an excellent example of a desirable lawn vegetable. We likely just need to dial in the right nutrients so that the seed or transplant grows into a big productive plant. , While minimizing digging beyond the size of a plug, so that the effect is seamless.   My idea is to dig a plug out, not big enough to show when looking at the lawn, but big enough to get some charged biochar , a bit of potting soil and compost down there with some worm castings, and then pop in a healthy plug , water it a bit frequently with some good tea.  Maybe some bloodmeal or bat guano ,or something, can help with the nitrogen requirement.   ( which Might be a while before it's dialed in)

As silly as it is, the thought occurs as some kind of veggie incognito grow plot for people living within the constraints of silly bylaws and home owners associations which would restrict people from having dug gardens or boxes. Requiring green grass that gets cut, etc.   Many of us might agree that these kinds of restrictions are entirely unnacceptable.   And presenting us with the challenge and the opportunity to do something about it.

I'm.sure if you put the corn in the right place, it will have an ornamental effect and not cause complaints.   But as a tall plant, this may or may not bode well with those who still have a stick up their butt.   Which brings me to think of other veggies like carrots, mesclun mixes , mint etc, growing amongst the grass... With the added benefit of looking like a dilligent puller of weeds  to all the neighborhood stalkers .

I think if we try really hard, we can turn this into a functional method of growing some veggies.  It truly is a.worth while endevour, as silly as it is, there are far too many people limited by silly rules that need countering, and beyond this, if we can master it on a lawn who knows where else this can come in handy, who knows what other plants might be magically made to appear on city lawns with frequent irrigation, and the like.