Growing Sweet corn in the north

[plantsbypost.com]

It's also a sweetcorn variety, I did a google search and found the link below:

Organic Gardening: How to grow organic Corn | Vegetable Crops for the Garden

They also mentioned Earlibelle and Earliking on that site as northern varieties, can't really find anyone selling them though...

Earliking has been replaced now by one called F1 Earligold.

[SarzWix]

I grew Swift a couple of years ago and it did ok, but still didn't have a full cob. I start them off in biggish peat pots in mid April and plant out beginning of June, so they do get a headstart.

[JennieAtkinson]

Being so far north mine grow in the tunnel really well, but I've had best success with butterscotch which is supersweet, mid season maturing (which suits the north) and is described as vigorous with cold tolerance.

Vigorous and cold tolerance normally catch my eye which means I'll probably get normal growth.

[Alice]

Good to see you there Jennie - we've missed you.
I'm going to start the sweet corn in pots as early as I can this year - in the conservatory. The plants don't get too big to start with so I can grow them on ready to go out at the end of May. Hopefully that will extend the season a bit and let me get them all ripened.

[Jenegade]

Butterscotch sounds like a good variety of sweetcorn, if you can grow it up in Shetland, surely I can grow it down here!

How early are you going to start germinating your sweetcorn Alice?

[realfood]

My method for growing is to sow indoors in heat, at 20 C, on top of the compost to prevent the seed rotting, in individual cells in late April. Remember that there is no point in sowing the seed too early, or the plants will become too big before you can plant them out into their final growing positions, when danger of frost has passed. Move the plants to a cooler frost free location such as a cold frame.

Plant out in June in a sunny, sheltered position, when all danger of frost is past in your area. In Northern areas, I would recommend continuing to provide cloche protection for the first month or so, to counter the effects of late frosts or cold winds.
This was particularly useful this year with the dull, cool, wet summer. After taking off the Lidl cloche which covered three rows of very vigorous sweetcorn, they grew very strongly. Each plant produced 2 to 2.5 cobs of succulent cobs, many of which are still in my freezer.

[Two_Sheds]

'Northern Extra Sweet' that is meant to grow well further north

I tried this last year: the plants didn't get taller than 18" and I didn't get a single good cob from 20 plants
Conqueror however, did brilliantly (again)

I've had best success with butterscotch... (which suits the north) and is described as vigorous with cold tolerance.

T&M have Butterscotch seeds

[SarzWix]

Yup, 'Northern Extra Sweet' were truly abysmal for me too. They all developed at a completely different rate to each other, only 2 plants got to 5ft, and therefore pollination was rubbish. My 'crop' from 12 plants was 2 or 3 'cobs' of the sort used for stir-frying

[Snadger]

Incredible does incredibly well for me.................

[jessmorris]

I live in Lancaster and look for corn which says 'suitable for northern Britain' or something similar on the packet. I've had both good and poor results and would say that timing of sowing/planting out was crucial, also planting them in a block to ensure pollination. I had LESS luck with F1 varieties....
hohum,
JM

[JamesM]

Sorry for posing probably a very daft question but i just wanted to clarify- F1 varieties don't need polinating so it's not necessary to plant them in blocks?

I'm a novice gardener and this will be thje first year i'' have tried sweetcorn

[Two_Sheds]

F1 varieties don't need polinating so it's not necessary to plant them in blocks?

yes they do, and yes it is

what are F1 seeds?

[JamesM]

yes they do, and yes it is

what are F1 seeds?

Glad I asked

[JamesM]

rather than start a new thread i thought i'd ask here:

This year i'm planning on growing sweetcorn in four large, square pots. My plan is probably to sow say 5 seeds per pot and thin to two plants per pot (although i may start them in a growhouse before transplanting). The pots will be arranged so they form a square as from what i've read this will be as good a block as i can form for pollination purposes.

I understand that this isn't an ideal method for growing the stuff but i am keen to grow veg that i really enjoy- i was hoping some more experienced gardeners out there would be able to advise me on my chances of succeeding?

(just as a footnote as it isn't included on my profile- i live in Bury St Edmunds in suffolk so climate wouldn't be a problem)

[SarzWix]

I've had best success with butterscotch which is supersweet, mid season maturing (which suits the north) and is described as vigorous with cold tolerance.
.

T&M have Butterscotch seeds

I just looked at the T&M page for this and it says: "A major new variety of early/mid season maturity, in that not only is it a corn of super sweetness, but Sweetcorn Butterscotch has also been modified by the 'sugar enchance' gene. "

I don't think I want genetically modified corn