Sweetcorn harvesting advice please

[Flapjack]

Hi everyone

The sweetcorn have developed brown tassels so I have just opened one of our cobs to see if it was ready. The top kernels are sort of see-through white with clear fluid but some of the lower down ones are yellow with milky fluid (ie. ripe!)

What I'd like to know is:

- Do all the kernels in one cob usually ripen at the same time?
- Are the white / see through ones un-pollinated or just not ready yet?
- Or is there a physical gap (no kernel at all) when pollination hasn't occurred?

Thanks!
Michelle

[Flapjack]

You can see the 3 ripe kernels at the bottom of the pic. Is that all I can hope for? Or will the other kernels ripen soon?

[biskit]

I have grown sweetcorn in the past, i found that it was usually ready when the leaves around the cob had turned brown and dry, the plant looked like it was almost dead and the cob was ripe from top to bottom, it looks to me like its not ready yet.

[Pieman]

Thanks for posting the picture - some of mine look ready but other kernals have "swelled" yet (look stubbly) so will hold on for a bit!!!

[zazen999]

Flapjack.
The ones at the top haven't been pollenated. If the ones at the bottom are milky then it is ready.

[Flapjack]

Thanks Andrea - we tried one - it was definitely ripe and very sweet but only a few kernels pollinated Got them in a block of 18, 30cm apart. It has been very windy though. What a shame!

[Flapjack]

Maybe some of the others have been pollinated better - this one is on the edge of the patch after all!

M

[Two_Sheds]

Oh bless!
Your poor naked sweetcorn! Most of mine were like that last year.

[Two_Sheds]

I wonder if my site is too windy, and the pollen just gets blown away? I'm going to surround mine with windbreak netting next year, to find out.

[kentvegplot]

Oh, that's a shame. I was so smug yesterday when I picked and ate the first one from my patch - fantastic flavour and a nice full cob.

Perhaps your others will be better - fingers crossed.

[Flapjack]

Well done for you Kent! I had a look at your blog but couldn't see a pic of your harvested corn - did you take one? Do you put up wind breakers?

Hope you have better luck this/next year Two_Sheds!

[T-lady]

I had this problem the first year I grew corn on our very windy site. Last year I started to polinate them by hand - literally dropping the little pollen sacks onto the silks - and got a fabulous full crop. Well worth doing if you're not growing thousands of them.

[Alison]

I always thought that wind was a good thing round sweetcorn as it helped with pollination, hadn't realised that some wind is good but you can have too much a good thing!

[kentvegplot]

Well done for you Kent! I had a look at your blog but couldn't see a pic of your harvested corn - did you take one? Do you put up wind breakers?

Hope you have better luck this/next year Two_Sheds!

Ah, too excited to photograph the first one, but I DID put pics of the next two. The pollination wasn't so even, you could see some gaps and the individual nibs (?) not all the same shape. Still, delicious.

I think my sheltered garden helped a lot - I didn't cut the hedges enough in winter and it was VERY still in there some days.

Maybe a windbreak would help Two_Sheds - might be down to variety too?

[Jameslovell]

Hi all
I am so glad someone else asked this question. I was thinking that my sweetcorn were not going to ripen. So happy to hear there still hope for my ears yet.
J