Growing sweetcorn in trays

[running_muttley]

Bit early for this but....

I've tried several times to grow sweet corn from seed. They germinate well and shoot up to about 10 cm but they just grow like blades of grass and don't get any thicker and die when planted out. What am I doing wrong? Previously I've planted the seed straight into the soil but the slugs got the seed this year so I need to plant them in pots next year.

[burnie]

This year was my first but I've had success,are you starting your seed in trays, if so you may be disturbing the roots when planting.I grew mine in plugs,so no root disturbance.I also planted some straight in the ground,they were slower but are growing well and have cobs on them.

[Snadger]

I've got sweetcorn that was sown direct and its doing fine.....it doesn't like cold soil so I sowed mine the same time as my French Beans which are also flourishing. Mid June I think, but I could be wrong!
Just as an aside I planted Cornflowers in between the corn working on the asumption that they must have been called that for a reason! They are also doing well

[running_muttley]

bl**dy slugs

The seed I planted in the soil was eaten by slugs, I dug it up and only found the outer skin. When I've grown them in trays I actually use newspaper pots so the roots don't get disturbed, the plants just look very sickly and then die when planted outside if not before.

[pigletwillie]

Mine get attacked by mice after germination.

However after much trial and error, I plant 1 seed to a 3" pot (15 to a standard seed tray) in April and water well. Most people over water at this stage and they either rot before germination or rot just after. Only water when the compost is dryish and do so sparingly until the plants are well established when they appreciate a drink.

Its our favourite veg and we grow over 150 plants a year of it.

[Snadger]

Mine get attacked by mice after germination.

However after much trial and error, I plant 1 seed to a 3" pot (15 to a standard seed tray) in April and water well. Most people over water at this stage and they either rot before germination or rot just after. Only water when the compost is dryish and do so sparingly until the plants are well established when they appreciate a drink.

Its our favourite veg and we grow over 150 plants a year of it.

If you grow 150 plants with say four cobs per plant....thats 600 cobs!!!

Crikey you must really like sweetcorn!Lol

[pigletwillie]

I wish,

I grow Swift and Lark and despite them boasting of two cobs per plant I find that most will give you one really good cob and perhaps a small one which is not worth bothering with so I remove it leaving just the one.About a quarter do give two useable cobs.

To try to get more cobs per plant I have bought a French Variety which boasts up to 4 cobs per plant so I will trial a small block of them.

This year we have harvested just under 200 cobs, quite a few were eaten as harvested and quite a few frozen.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Hi RM! I planted mine in trays then transplanted into pots, then into the ground with no probs, in fact well impressed for a first timer! sorry dont know what make though! not sure if the weather helped or hindered this year! dexterdog

[Snadger]

Forgot to take my bait to the lottie the other day so ate a cob raw! I think iI actually prefered it that way!!!

Didn't mean to offend with my last comment by the way, I just had a mental picture of an old cartoon (Might have been Deputy Dog!) Anyway the one in which Musky was always munching the sweetcorn as if playing an harmonica!

I somehow imagined you and all the little Muskie's munching away at the dinner table!

[nick the grief]

I always so them in pots (I've got some square ones that are about 2.75" sq but about 3.5" deep & they seem to like that.

[leona]

i planted mine individually in small pots and let them get a little bit pot bound so the roots held together when i planted them out. worked fine.

[multiveg]

I sowed mine in newspaper pots (uses PotMaker) and they grew no problem apart from when I didn't go out slughunting - the bloomin things ate half of them - just nibbled the tips.
I think it was a couple of years back on Gardeners Question Time (BBC Radio 4 - 2pm Sunday with shortened repeat Wednesday 3pm) that Bob Flowerdew mentioned that one of the Indian tribes would plant a fish head underneath each sweetcorn seed. Also, I think he mentioned the three sisters method - sweetcorn being a support for climbing french beans, and in between, having a trailing squash/pumpkin of some sort rambling through the patch.

[Teresa Sorokin]

This is my first year with corn (as with most veg) and although they grew well, I planted them straight into the soil, they only produced a few good cobs. Mostly they were deformed having corn only one side of the cob or in a few places. The summer here was dreadfully dry but I did water every day as I have a well near the veggie plot (or a veggie plot near the well) so what would have caused that? I can't remember which variety I used but it was bought over here in France.