In the Zellwood area sweet corn competes with celery and leaf crops
for land in the spring season. Winter temperatures and susceptibility to
frost damage preclude winter sweet corn production in Zellwood.

 Farm management problems.--The sweet corn grower encounters serious
farm management problems usually associated with specialized enterprises
having short seasons of production, peak labor requirements and high cash
costs of production. Land preparation, planting, cultivating, spraying and
harvesting one crop of sweet corn does not extend over a period of more than
four months. Peak labor requirements occur at harvest, complicating the
problem of having an adequate labor supply. Large growers with staggered
plantings find harvest labor less of a problem than smaller growers who
harvest only once per season. Producing a quality product relatively free
of disease and insect infestation is the most expensive production problem.
Growing cost varies from $160 to $220 per acre, 25 to 30 percent of which
is the cost of insect and disease prevention and control.

 Specialized equipment for spraying and harvesting sweet corn has
been developed and improved over the past 10 years. This equipment is
costly both from the initial capital outlay and annual upkeep. A small
grower with one crop of corn cannot justify its purchase for the few days
per year of its use. Larger growers with multiple plantings of corn use
such equipment more efficiently and can justify its cost.

 Production risks.--Temperature, rainfall, high winds, insect pests
and plant diseases are important factors in the production of sweet corn.
Most growers in Florida are limited in planting fall and winter crops by
frost hazards. Damaging frosts as early as November 18 have been experienced
in Palm Beach County.4 As much as 7.1 inches of rain in a day and 19.3
inches in a month have occurred in Belle Glade during the corn planting
season within the past 15 years.5 Winds of hurricane force have been
experienced as late as mid-November in South Florida.

 The incidence and severity of disease is also related to weather.
Cox and Harrison found that "the severity of northern corn leaf blight
during the spring seasons of 1955, 1956 and 1957 was related to mean weekly
minimum temperature, mean weekly relative humidity and frequency of rains.
The disease was checked when the weekly mean minimum temperature was less
than 600F., the mean weekly humidity less than 60 percent, and when rains
occurred less frequently than at weekly intervals."6 Insect as well as
disease activity is related to weather.

 4D. E. McCloud and D. S. Harrison, "Thirty-three Years of Belle
Glade Weather," Fla. Agr. Exp. Sta. Circ. S-105, April 1958, p. 2.

 5Ibid., p. 9.

 6R. S. Ccx and D. S. Harrison, "Factors Affecting the Incidence
and Control of Northern Corn Leaf Blight in Sweet Corn Production in the
Everglades," Fla. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 596, May 1958, p. 19.