Sweetcorn advise

Have you hardened them off yet? Put them outside in the day, and back in at night? If they've been hardened off for a week or more, then I'd plant them out. If not, then you need to do that before planting out, so the shock of 'outside' doesn't stop them growing for a bit, or worse, kill them off!

I am in Croydon and I am waiting till the end of the month before I put them out. Last year there was a hard frost halfway thru May and I lost a lot of mine. On the coast you should have less chance of frost.

mine have been in the ground a week now.. no problems as yet

PLanted my shop bought ones today, they had been hardened off. Home grown ones still small and out during the day. Just hope they dont end up as pigeon food!

Cloche or fleece them perhaps?

Mine are now in the plastic greenhouse at night (outside in the day) and will be outside overnight within the next few days, ready to be planted out fairly soon i.e. as soon as I have prepared the bed. As of today, the may is out

Some of mine (minipop f1, not proper sweetcorn) are over a foot tall in the greenhouse and they aren't going out for a week or two yet. I'm running out of pots large enough for them....

Thanks guys.

Have decided to harden them off this week as it is still a bit chilly in the night time and the BBC gardeners world team said to wait until it is 10 degrees at night.

So, they are out in the garden now...getting climatized!

I think I'll plant them out in a couple of weeks.

Only half of the seeds I planted germinated, did anyone else have this problem? Have sown some more today.

Lu x

along the coast in Hastings mine have been in for a few days and seem happy enough

I hold off planting mine out as last year we had cold winds during May and the lot got windburn. This year, they are staying near home rather than at the lottie and will be going in the ground in a few weeks.

Hi,

I'm also looking for some sweetcorn advice, as I'm a bit of a novice at growing, this is the first year my fiancee (wife in 4 months), has let me have a vegetable plot. I've decided to grow potatoes & tomatoes, as they seem fairly easy, along with sweetcord, as I love it!

Back in Jan I brought some seed potatoes, and chilted them, then planted them out at the start of April. Then 3 weeks ago, I went to our local garden center, and brought some small tomato & sweetcorn plants, each about 6" tall. I left them in the green house for a week, to harden, then 2 weeks ago planted them out (we're in Swindon, and it was a fairly warm spell, with temperatures reaching a balmy 17°c), this was at about the same time the first of the potatoe plants was pushing up through the soil.

Since then, the potatoes have shot up, and are now nearly 1ft in hight, the tomato plants have gown about 50% in size, but the sweetcorn hasn't grown at all. What am I doing wrong? After reading this thread (along with http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_...sweet_corn.asp) I'm thinking that I possibly planted them out to early? Maybe I should have left them in the green house til mid May? Or put something down around them, to keep the soil warm? The position is in a raised bed, which gets direct light from morning til about lunchtime, when it becomes a little shady, the sweetcorn should be protected from the wind by the potatoes, which are planted about 1ft away to the side.

If I did plant them out to early, how can I now save them, and get them growing again?

Many thanks

Ben

Only sowed mine the other week so guess by the time mine are ready to go out, frosts should all be gone .

Sweetcorn grows more slowly than potatoes or tomatoes - being planted out a bit early will have slowed them down even more. But as long as they look green and healthy, all you need to do is wait! You'll have corn by around August (give or take).

PS welcome to the vine and good luck with your new plot!

I will plant my 180 corn (thinks I have a few too many) from the end of the month.

I love corn