Not F1 sweetcorn

[greenstar]

Hi,

I've read a lot of stuff about F1 varieties of sweetcorn, but I was wondering if any one has experience of growing open pollinated sweetcorn. Is it as easy to grow and is it as sweet as the F1 stuff?

[oldie]

As a newbie I can't comment on the sweetness but I have been recommended to grow the double standard bi-colour from the real seed company. The advantage is that you can save your own seeds- as long as you don't grow another type nearby.

[Alison]

I think that saving seed from a domestic sweetcorn harvest can be a bit irratic as you don't have many plants and have been told that (unlike many other open polliniated plants) the quality can diminish over the years unless you have a large number. Don't know this from personal experience but worth investigating.

[Snadger]

I suppose the beauty of a non F1 hybrid sweetcorn is that you won't have a mountain of sweetcorn all ready on the same day!

[Paulottie]

That said Snadger I usually find that the second or third cobs ripen later than the first....doesn't stop the local badgers flattening them just as they are ready though

I saved a load of seed one time that came from a plot with honey bantam and sundance, both f1 and grown near each other. The next year most came back as bicolour cobs with good flavour and germination rates. So having broken all the rules ?

I think some OP sweetcorn is fine and very tasty. but I believe that even grown away from other plants the pollen can carry a long way on the wind so as Alison says I don't think I'd save seed on an ongoing basis.

I understand that seed is expensive though. I thought I'd run out when I planted the rest of last years Sundance from Dobies. I brought some at the local nursary and chose Unwins 'Supersweet' because it had 75 seeds as ave contents as opposed to Suttons that billed 35 for the same price!...Got home and found another triple pack I had ordered from Dobies and had forgotten!!!

[greenstar]

Thanks for that. Snadger - is that what usually happens with sweetcorn, that they're all ready at once? I've never grown it before as I've never had space, but have got the seeds from Real Seeds to give it a go - and it doesn't seem that expensive - £1.60 odd for 60 seeds.

[Snadger]

Thanks for that. Snadger - is that what usually happens with sweetcorn, that they're all ready at once? I've never grown it before as I've never had space, but have got the seeds from Real Seeds to give it a go - and it doesn't seem that expensive - £1.60 odd for 60 seeds.

Not just sweetcorn greenstar any vegetable that is an F1 variety is usually, but not always,grown for uniformity. All the same size and all ready on the same day. This means farmers can go out and clear a field in a day rather than waiting for individual plants to mature.
F1 's are bred for other reasons as well, like resistance to disease or fungus or sometimes, as in sweetcorn, to improve sugar content and hardiness.

I try and grow heritage varieties of most veg whenever I can, but I'm not averse to using F1's if I feel the advantages outweigh the disadvantages!

[Paulottie]

That's a pretty good price, What variety?

Another idea would be to sow 15 a week to give succession. I'm sure you know to plant out in blocks.... more tips, sow in 3" pots and use a bulb planter to set out minimum root disturbance. You can make cloches from water bottles, they like mulches, you can grow butternuts etc underneath to save space.

[greenstar]

Real Seeds only sell one type of sweetcorn,and I'm wondering now if I should have gone for the F1 type instead given that I live in the frozen north. Paul, I'm planning on growing a winter squash through the corn - early golden hubbard - but I'm a bit confused about spacing. Where exactly are you supposed to put them? I'm only doing about 20 (at the very most) sweetcorn plants, and if I have to plant in blocks, will the squash squeeze in between them?

[Alison]

20 is a perfectly respectable number, I only grew 8 last year (should have been 9 but one died!) and you can fit a couple of squashes in amongst those. Think I planted mine about 1.5' apart last year but not sure if that's the ideal, it was just what fitted and it all seemed to work fine!

[Paulottie]

If I'm planting Winter squashes amongst them I plant them in the middle as you don't have to get in there to harvest. Set out your plants between 15-18 inches apart each way leaving one out where the squash should be planted.

I don't think it matters about the OP seeds F1's are not necessarily hardier, more bred for extra sweetness. Given where you live it I'd definitely start them of indoors in pots NOW and get some pop bottles just remove the lid cut off the bottom and twist them over each station till your frost free in June. They take a while and it would be impossible to cover against frost damage to the cobs at the back end of the season.

[greenstar]

Thanks for that Paul - I had planned on starting them off indoors this weekend in toilet roll tubes, and have the pop bottles waiting in the shed. I've heard that you can also use the plastic bottles as covers for the cobs when they are ripening to stop the mice getting at them. Have you tried this?

[Paulottie]

No, can't say I have.... mice are not really my problem (neither is frost in sunny Sussex but it's a good idea)..more badgers here and they got through some pretty ridged and dug in chicken wire fencing last year...flattened the lot. Our allotment saying is "you'll know when its ready cos the badgers will have eaten it." I've gone three stand electric on their ass this year!

PS Be careful not to over water and rot them in loo roll tubes...easily done

[greenstar]

PS Be careful not to over water and rot them in loo roll tubes...easily done

I know - I seem to have done that with my french beans this year