Sweetcorn newbie

[smallblueplanet]

Total corn newbie here, can anyone recommend any particular varieties please.

[pigletwillie]

Swift or Lark SBP are both very reliable. I only grow Lark now as its been productive no matter what the weather has done.

[shirlthegirl43]

Have had lots of fun growing sweetcorn the past 2 years but haven't harvested any corns yet - first year didn't know about shaking the plants and last year the weather was too rubbish. Hoping for better luck with Swift and Minipop this year.

[smallblueplanet]

I'm always one for a bit of a Lark!

They're not nasty GM stuff are they (can't you tell I don't know nowt 'bout corn!)?

[valmarg]

We have found Swift to be a very good variety. Had very good crops last year, despite the dreadful weather.

valmarg

[pigletwillie]

They are F1 SBP, but not mutant stock.

[smallblueplanet]

They are F1 SBP, but not mutant stock.

Excellent, as a veggie I'd hate to find fish genes in my sweetcorn!

[Mike and Louise]

We grew last year, and are growing this year, F1 Applause.

We only grew 4 plants, one each per 12" pot, then placed the pots side by side so they could easially cross polinate and we got two cobs per plant.

[Paulottie]

Sundance is my favourite supersweet SBP. but honeybantam not bad with multicolured cobs. I hate to be ignorant but where is Vale of Pewsey ? as it makes a differance to which you might choose.

[smallblueplanet]

Hi Paul, we're between Devizes and Pewsey, west to east, and between Swindon and Salisbury north to south. Pretty free draining soil as you'd expect in a Vale.

Can we plant Swift & Lark & Sundance & Honey Bantam or do I have to choose one type? (They all sounded good!)

[Alice]

If you plant more than one kind they'll cross polinate SBP.

[SarzWix]

We've done Swift for 2 years SBP, and managed to get cobs both years (even up here in the frozen North ). I'm having a change this year, and trying Northern Extra Sweet F1 from T&M, plus a few Swift as back-up
Cross pollination is one of those grey areas with sweetcorn - some say it doesn't matter unless you're saving seed, some say it only matters with Supersweet varieties, some say don't put any different varieties anywhere near each other.... I dunno, I'm putting the 2 types I'm growing in the same bed - got no other space!

[Herbie]

I will be trying Swift this year after all the recommendations. Checked mine today (that was sown a week ago), yep Ive definately killed it

I forgot that the seed doesn't know how to swim

Will try again in the next few days

[muckdiva]

Hi SBP, I grew a USA variety called Reids Yellow Dent last year, very strong plants which grew extremely tall with 2 cobs per plant, but they didn't really ripen in time due to the awful weather. They didn't have the best position on the plot - might have done better in a more open position.

This year I'm trying an open pollinated variety from Real Seeds called Double Standard and will also sow some Swift F1 seeds as a backup. They'll have to go in the same bed, but am not too worried after reading Protea's post re cross pollination on another thread. Will be sowing the Swift later in the season anyway.

Good luck, nothing better than sweet corn fresh from the plot.

[smallblueplanet]

I think I'll try an F1 for the first go, lots of you are voting for Swift, so thats probably what I'll try too.