Sweetcorn (after germination!)

[garygc2008]

I think mine took a week to shoot up, but that was in a cold frame. I'm no expert, but i would assume if roots are starting to form then its only a matter of time? There's no stopping mine now the're up, so i wouldn't worry.

[kirsty b]

I have soaked mine sweetcorn for 2 days and them left them to sprout on wet kitchen towel - checked this morning and yey! most of them sprouted...guess what I'll be doing this evening after work...questions though, do I plant them with sprout downwards or? (never grown sweetcorn before)

I sowed my first batch a bit too early and a fiddle in the pot revealed a root going down before any sign of green coming up. It sounds as though what has sprouted is your root, so yes, plant that down. Out of sheer nosiness what variety are you growing?

[norazina]

I'm growing T&M's Extra Tender & Sweet F1...got home last night, and did not have a problem figuring out which goes where, as root got all furry and the stalk sprouted as well. So all 16 have been potted up, and I will sow the rest of the packet at the end of May. So excited as I have never eaten freshly harvested corn :-)

[norazina]

Can anyone offer any advice here? I sowed my sweetcorn in peat pots almost 3 weeks ago and still no sign of them, so I had a bit of a rummage in one of the pots this morning and there are some roots starting to grow - not that big, but at least they're there. There was no sign of a shoot, but is this normal. Do you think the shoot will come now the roots are forming? (dohhhh, I know I sound real stupid asking this)

as I have just posted, my corn shooted next day after root sprouted, but that was on the wet towel (don't know if this matters)

[Terryr]

Hi fellow sufferers
Lots of interesting stuff about corn here. I am in Paisley(Scotland) and have them in G/H growing in loo tubes. I think the keep slightly on dry side is great advice. In some tubes i have two or even three plants. I am slightly tempted to try planting them out like this. If you look at the fields of corn in France very often plants are inches apart our even touching at the base. Anyone tried this our am I just being greedy?

Terryr

[busylizzie]

I have another sweetcorn question to add! I don't have much room to plant them, so was wondering what would be the minimum number of plants in order to get decent pollination? At the moment I have 9 plants and was figuring on a 3x3 block - do you think this is enough?

[gojiberry]

Hi busylizzie you will be alright with just 9 plants, you will usually get three or four cobs from each plant. Just a word of warning if you are going to increase your plants. Make sure they are the same variety as mixing two different corn will usually result in cross polination which will usually mean tough cobs with no sweetness.

Ian

[busylizzie]

Thanks gojiberry, they would be the same ones, I've got just enough seeds left to plant a few more after my toddler got hold of the packet to play with!

I think I will stick with the 9 plants for this year and see how we do.

[phil the shed]

terryr
i plant individually but my west indian allotment neighbours all plant 3 plants and cut/harvest all 3 together.
i am growing swift and incredible at opposite ends of my plots. incidently all mine were planted in rootrainers and put outside two weeks ago and of the seeds only 1 has failed to germinate out of over 50 planted. starting out side they already look strong and can't wait to plant

[spud57]

Hi busylizzie you will be alright with just 9 plants, you will usually get three or four cobs from each plant. Just a word of warning if you are going to increase your plants. Make sure they are the same variety as mixing two different corn will usually result in cross polination which will usually mean tough cobs with no sweetness.

Ian

I am planting an F1 variety at the allotment ( the heritage variety at home) - is cross pollination a problem on allotment sites with people planting differnet varities all over?