Where corn grows: growing areas in Russia and the world

Corn or maize is today one of the leading food, fodder and industrial crops. This is the oldest bread plant on our planet. Many countries in the world where corn grows are exporters of this crop.

The birthplace of wild maize is Central and South America. Grain was brought to Europe by Columbus as early as 1496. The culture came to Russia during the Russian-Turkish war in 1768-1774. It began to spread throughout the country from Bessarabia, where maize was cultivated everywhere.

In Turkey, maize is called "kokoroz" - a tall plant. Thanks to N. Khrushchev, in the 60s of the last century, an active selection of culture began in our country. Due to the development of a large number of zoned varieties and hybrids, corn cultivation is now practiced 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 the crop is productivity: corn can produce 4.5 or more tons of grain and 17 tons of green mass per 1 ha. Flour, starch, ethanol, dextrin, glucose, syrup, oil, vitamin E are produced from corn grain. It is canned, processed into cereals and flakes, 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 in diameter can reach 7 cm. The leaves are large, about 1 m long and 10 cm wide, linear-lanceolate. On 1 stem there can be from 8 to 42 leaves.

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 substances, as well as supports.

Maize is a monoecious wind-pollinated plant, so its flowers are unisexual: males form panicles at the top of the stems, and females form cobs located in the leaf axils. The yield depends 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 mass of an ear can be 30-500 g. The ears are sealed in leaf-like wrappers, and only long pistillate columns come out.The wind carries pollen from the male inflorescences to the pistils of the cobs, on which, after fertilization, fruits are formed - grains. The plant cannot self-pollinate. Small areas may require manual pollen collection and pollination.

Corns have a cubic or rounded shape, they are planted tightly to each other and are arranged in rows on the stalk of cobs. In 1 cob there can be 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 between varieties, you can use the description and photo presented on the package with seeds; the cultivation of corn, depending on the variety, lasts 90-150 days. Seedlings appear 10-12 days after the seeds are planted in the soil. Initially, it is a heat-loving culture that germinates at +8…10 ºС and develops at +20…24 ºС.

There are a large number of released 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 up to - 3 ºС.

Corn is a light-loving crop. Illumination is especially important at the beginning of the growing season. Therefore, the optimal sowing method is square-nested, in which the darkening of each other's shoots is minimal.

Maize is dependent on soil aeration. Loosening and other soil treatment are necessary to obtain a good harvest. The culture is moisture dependent. In hot weather, 1 plant can absorb more than 1 liter of water.

The large volume of green mass and the high content of monosaccharides in it involved in lactic fermentation during ensiling is the reason that corn is the main silage crop in our country.

Maize belongs to tilled crops. In the crop rotation, it takes the place of the predecessor of cereals and legumes or fallow planting when grown for green fodder.

Despite the fact that the plant greatly depletes the soil and degrades its structure, it frees it from weeds, many diseases and pests. In the south of the country, corn is sown in re-sowing.

What soil do you need for corn?

The main areas of cultivation of maize for grain for the production of mixed fodder and for the food industry are Central Asia, Transcaucasia, the North Caucasus, the 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 and structural field soils. Corn can grow on sandy loam, dark gray loam and peat bogs. The plant develops poorly and bears fruit on heavy clay, marshy, s alty and acidic soils.

Corn for green fodder is less whimsical, and therefore it is cultivated everywhere, including in the Non-Black Earth Region, on peat and sod-podzolic soils.

Culture requires a soil with a neutral reaction of the environment, slightly acidic soils are also acceptable. To grow maize on podzolic, acidic soils, dolomite, wood ash and organic fertilizers (humus, compost, peat) are added to them before planting. With sufficient application of organic and mineral fertilizers, corn can be grown on sandy soil.

Due to the characteristics of the root system, the plant needs loose soils with good aeration, enriched with oxygen.

On soils littered with weeds, especially rose mustard, creeping couch grass, thistle, and other rhizomatous and root weeds, corn grows poorly. This is especially important at the seedling 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 most important 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 supplements is an important condition for obtaining a high yield and high-grade corn grain 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 delays 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 zone of risky farming, early maturing varieties are 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 most early-ripening varieties do not have time to ripen, so here maize is cultivated for green fodder. Preliminary cultivation of seedlings is practiced to obtain grain, however, this method is not used in large volumes. Seedlings are planted from the second half of May. Harvesting takes place in August-September.

For the cultivation of corn in the North-West region and, in particular, in the Leningrad region, first-generation hybrids (F1 Candle, Spirit, Trophy and others) are used with a short vegetation period, the cobs of which ripen 70-75 days after emergence of shoots. For small plots, seedling cultivation is used. In the southern part of the region, it is possible to cultivate varieties with a ripening period of 90-100 days. 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 species of plants belonging to the genus corn, but only 1 of them - sweet corn is suitable for human consumption. There are no wild varieties of it that can grow without prior soil cultivation in the open field.

In abandoned areas, you can find plants that grow on their own. Seeds from unharvested or overripe and spilled cobs in this case 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 the full maturation of the grain, in this case, rarely add up.

Where corn grows: 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). Member countries of the European Union collect about 6.5% of the world's corn production, while the CIS members together produce only 4.6%.

Maize exporting countries

The leading role in the production of maize belongs to the United States. More than 380 thousand tons of corn grain are produced in this country annually.

Other top maize producing countries (according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations):

• China (more than 230 thousand tons).
• Brazil (over 64 thousand tons).
• Argentina (more than 39.5 thousand tons).
• Mexico (about 28 thousand tons).
• Ukraine (about 28 thousand tons).

Which country produces the best corn?

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 in the USA, Canada and France, which are among the top ten exporters of corn grain, there is a high crop yield. In other countries, the volumes are achieved by increasing the acreage.

Among the countries trading maize in the world, the best yield in Greece - 13.5 t/ha, the Netherlands - 11.8 t/ha; while the average yield in the EU countries for 2022-2023 was only 6.91 t/ha. In the USA, about 10 tons of grain are harvested from 1 ha. At the same time, the yield increases by at least 1% per year. The same goes for Western Europe.

In Russia, despite the unfavorable conditions in most of the territory, the yield is within the global range - 5.6 t/ha. And in China, there is a downward trend in yields.

Maize grows well in its original homeland: in 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, crops for grain are grown in the North Caucasus, the Volga region, the Central Chernozem region, the 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 areas are the best for cultivation, and the Russian Federation, despite climatic features, is one of the leaders in the production and export of maize in the world. The Krasnodar Territory is the first in the top five producers of corn.

Today, the area under crop cultivation in Russia is about 2,800 thousand hectares.

Where grain corn grows in Russia

Main corn growing areas in Russia:

• Krasnodar Territory (3368 thousand tons - 34% of the gross grain volume).
• 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%).
• Voronezh (518 thousand tons - 5.3%).

The soils and climatic conditions in these areas are optimal for growing maize.

More than 1% of the total volume is produced by such areas of Russian corn cultivation as Kabardino-Balkaria, the Republics of Tatarstan and North Ossetia, Tambov, Lipetsk, Saratov Region, Mordovia.

The best yields were recorded in Moscow (70.6 c/ha), Kaliningrad (67.4 c/ha) and Oryol (63.7 c/ha) regions.

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