sweetcorn

[SimonCole]

Does it need staking or will it be OK in a bunch?
How do you plant it?
What variety should I choose?

Thanks for any help. My mum wanted some so I'm giving it a try.

[pigletwillie]

I have grown Swift and Lark with great success for the past few years. Any sugar enhanced variety will give you a worthwhile crop although there are plenty of others to choose from.

The plants should be planted individually in blocks with anywhere between
12" and 18" between plants and rows. They will not need staking at all but will need lots of water.

[hugh_hayter2002@yahoo.com]

Sweetcorn

I grow it in the greenhouse until it is about 6" tall, and then plant out.
In blocks with each plant about 9" apart.
I have never needed to stake, and have always had marvellous crops

[SimonCole]

Thanks Piglet and Hugh... It's a first for me!
I'll try to use both methods, but this year we have building work so it may be hard to find a place for my plastic greenhouses.
I'll also track down some Swift and Lark

[Getoffmylande]

I grew swift for the first time last year and did a grid of plants 12 inches apart. The plot we have was fairly exposed and i did have to steke one or two out of the whole pack.One thing to remember is that if you do try a crop not to get differing varieties as some are sweet and others are supersweet. The two types counteract each other and will not produce anything.Stick with one variety and you will be enjoying delicious corn on the cob next autumn. I hope that this helps

[SimonCole]

Invaluable advice... Thankyou.
So they do not cross pollinate?

[burnie]

I had to stake all of mine but I do live in a wind tunnel(river valley)as they got flattened.You may already know this but they are planted in blocks because they are wind polinated.

[Snadger]

One of the guys at our lotties puts windbreaks up on the windward side to give them a bit of protection. The bonny striped kind used on the beach( or is that just on North East beaches???)

I myself don't bother, and I don't stake either, and I had really good sweetcorn this year which I just sowed direct in the soil.

Best eaten raw straight from the plant!!! Mmmm I can taste it now! Yum Yum!

I have been told you can use the sweetcorn for to support climbing French Beans and in return the legumes fixate nitrogen in the soil which feeds the sweetcorn! Might give that a try this year!

[Nicos]

Agree with the rest of the bunch!..One variety and block plant....

[vicki lorraine]

Has anyone tried the strawberry sweetcorn variety which is used for popping? Seen it in the T and M seed catalogue.
I also grew corn last year. Did not stake it and it stood up fine. Sweetcorn is best sown in pots and then planted out. When planting out plant it deeper than it was in the pot to help anchor it in. The roots grow very close to the surface and therefore care is needed when weeding or hoeing. I am underplanting with courgette this year to prevent weed growth.

[BayViewPlot]

Snadger, sounds like agreat plan to companion plant beans with corn... would you space the corn out wider to give the beans room? and on an equal ratio?

thanks for your continual advice for newbies such as meself, stumbling half - blind (drunk) down the lottie path!

[jools]

I was going to plant one patch of ordinary sweetcorn and one of the baby version. My kids like both. From what has been said about cross pollination, would this be a bad idea then?
Jools

[denise]

This works graet Snadger, 1 bean plant to each corn plant and if you plant a courgette plants well spaced in the space between the rows, the leaves will protect the courgettes. All the foalige will proctect the soil and keep the mositure in, as well getting a large supply of lovely veg from the same space.

I did this last year had a good crop of beans, corn and corgettes. This tecnique is from the american indians they call it 'Three sisters'.

[Lesley Jay]

Denise I keep reading about the Three Sisters method of planting but my courgette plants grow huge and certainly wouldn't fit between the sweetcorn plants. What variety of courgettes do you grow and what are the spacings between the sweetcorn plants?

[pigletwillie]

I had two beds 5' wide by 22 ft long planted with sweetcorn and I interplanted this with my squash and crown prince pumpkins. This worked incredibly well as the pumpkins and squash plants were a great weed suppressing mulch and added to the yield of each bed.

I never planted beans with them however but will try a few this season. Would I be correct in thinking that the beans need to be a dwarf variety or climbers but planted a while after the corn to prevent them from getting too far ahead of the corn.