Sweet corn variety.

[bobbin]

Hi all.
Can anyone recommend a reliable sweet corn variety? I grew one last year that I simply cant recall name of ...Sun...something.
However each plant produced 2-3 cobs. The first cob was fair but the other small and poor quality. So dont want that one again.
I want a plant that only gives one good quality sweet cob not something that gives multiples at the expense of quality.
I have grown sweet corn very successfully in the past but cant for the life of me recall names.
Your help please.
Thanks in anticipation.

[Snoop Puss]

Lark is good, but it too will produce two or three cobs. Two good ones but the third one is always rubbish. I've never tried this, but it may be that if you want your plants to only focus their efforts on one cob, you need to remove any others that grow.

[peanut]

I grew Swift and Lark last year. Both were utterly delicious.

[bobbin]

Actually snoop puss I hadn’t thought of removing lower cobs. Seems obvious but I’m just wary of damaging the stem or allowing infection in.
Has anyone else removed unwanted weak cobs? Lark and Swift are possibly the ones I've grown before so thanks for recommendation peanut.
Has anyone tried Golden Hind. I saw it in Alnwick gardens and the cobs were very big but little foliage to speak of.

Can I just say theres something about the old GYO website that I miss. Not sure what it was but I miss it. It was just more...comfortable. This ones very well organised but a lot of folk seem to have left.

[Snoop Puss]

Just to say it's better to only grow one variety of sweetcorn unless you can isolate them from each other by a considerable distance. They readily cross pollinate and this can negatively affect both taste and texture.

[ameno]

Just to say it's better to only grow one variety of sweetcorn unless you can isolate them from each other by a considerable distance. They readily cross pollinate and this can negatively affect both taste and texture.

It will only negatively affect taste and texture if they are different types of sweetcorn, not just different varieties. So, for instance, if you are growing a super sweet variety and a traditional variety together, the super sweet variety will end up with some of the kernels being tough and starchy.
But as long as both of the varieties you are growing are in the same group (so two super sweet varieties, for example) then you should notice no difference.

[Snoop Puss]

^Thanks for the clarification, Ameno.

[annie8]

Swift for me too.

[bobbin]

I’ve only ever grown one variety as I was aware more than one can greatly compromise taste. I just wish I knew if removing the excess cobs would be a good move. So if anyone has done this before please do let me know. Thanks all for your help.

[Snadger]

Swift for me. Its the only one I have ever grown and it performs well for me. I was late in sowing last year so some of the cobs were too late to harvest, but that's my fault.

[hop-a-long]

I tried three varieties last year- golden hind in the allotment, moonshine in a patch of lawn I dug up at home, and some popcorn from a pack of popcorn in the glasshouse.
The moonshine did really well, very tasty big single cobs- highly recommend them! The golden hind wasn't too bad but didn't grow quite as big, though different conditions. I think we had a few baby corns from the golden hind too, looked like they didn't pollinate properly and a few cobs were just like the mini corns you get in the shop. The popcorn was a bit of a waste of time I'm afraid, it looked like it was ready to pick about the end of October but the kernels never popped. It was a bit of an experiment by my daughter and sown pretty late in the season, they probably need a long growing season to ripen fully so maybe that was it. The others were sown about the middle of May. I've just gotten another pack of moonshine for this year and am tempted to get a few off to an early start - I might do two or three sowings to stagger the harvest and see how that goes... Probably a bit too early yet though!

[Snoop Puss]

The popcorn was a bit of a waste of time I'm afraid, it looked like it was ready to pick about the end of October but the kernels never popped. It was a bit of an experiment by my daughter and sown pretty late in the season, they probably need a long growing season to ripen fully so maybe that was it.

Sorry if you already know this but just in case: popcorn doesn't pop on the plant but when cooked. Lots of info on the Web.

[Grafitti]

I had quite good results growing glass gem corn, 90% of the plants produced 2 good sized cobs each. Of course it's only good for popcorn, but it does look good. This year I'm trying the sweetcorn version of it, Astronomy Domine, which promises to be a very interesting landrace strain, but couldn't recommend one way or another since I haven't grown it yet

[Purple Primrose]

I fancied growing sweetcorn for the first time and bought two types of sweetcorn seed from Molesseeds. Having just read this thread, I'm now wondering whether I should plant both types this year or just plant one and save the other type for next year. I've got seed for Earlibird (a super sweet variety) and Minipop (a normal sugar type for harvesting as very young cobs for stir frying). Are they likely to be OK grown together or would they cause problems by pollinating each other?

[ameno]

I fancied growing sweetcorn for the first time and bought two types of sweetcorn seed from Molesseeds. Having just read this thread, I'm now wondering whether I should plant both types this year or just plant one and save the other type for next year. I've got seed for Earlibird (a super sweet variety) and Minipop (a normal sugar type for harvesting as very young cobs for stir frying). Are they likely to be OK grown together or would they cause problems by pollinating each other?

If Minipop pollinated Earlibird then it could well end up marring the quality of the Earlibird, yes.
However, baby sweetcorn does not need pollinating (you pick them very young, before the seeds even start developing), and therefore you could simply remove the male tassels from the top of the Minipop plants before they start producing pollen, thereby eliminating any chance of cross-pollination. And of course since you pick Minipop before it pollinates, anyway, there's no risk of cross-pollination the other way around.