Sweet corn swift rubbish

[Snoop Puss]

I harvested a single cob last week to try and although small about a third of the size of a normal cob, it was tasty. I haven't gotten round to harvesting the remainder and the ears are brown now.

When you say the 'ears', do you mean the silks or the husk around the cobs? Peel back the husk a tiny amount, press a kernel and look at the liquid. It needs to be milky and the kernels a bright yellow and plump. It would be a shame to let them go too long... 1Bee's link is very useful.

[quanglewangle]

Tassels too early

Early tassels can be due to stress, due in turn to a cold snap or not enough water.

Not much to be done about late cold snap, but sweet corn does need lots of water. It's easy to think of it as a dryish prairie type of plant but it really needs lots of moisture as well as sun.

Our soil is sandy and dries out within hours of any rain stopping. We use a thick mulch and a what we call a dribbley hose snaking up and down the rows.

[quanglewangle]

In my last post I said

Not much to be done about late cold snap,

but I now remember we did rush out and cover the plants with fleece a couple of times when still clear nights were forecast - would have been early May iirc when they were about 20 - 30 cm high.

[quanglewangle]

Variety Swift can give good results...

Just for the record, Swift can give good results. Here is a pic of some Swift corns picked today. I harvest them when they are barely ripe: I can't eat a lot of fiber (in fact shouldn't eat sweetcorn at all) and at this stage the pericarp(?) is not too course.


The image is a link to more detail.

(Note we are in a mild climate area. ymmv, as they say)