Sweetcorn advise

[Phill]

I've just put all 35 of mine in on my allotment. I had a couple of the guys telling me I'm two weeks too early, but...they've got two chances haven't they?

[nilling]

Emptied out my pots and looked like all my seeds had rotted

Started off another batch - fingers crossed

[Flummery]

I soaked mine for 48 hours then sowed one to a 3" pot in the cold greenhouse. They came up in about 10 days, all but 1. Now about 4-5 inches high. I shall harden off in a week or so and plant at the end of the month. I too remember that hard frost late last May NOG. We were travelling to the East Midlands airport for a few days with friends in Co Clare. We set off very early (3.00 a.m.!) to get the early flight and altrhough it was chilly but not frosty at home we watched a sparkly, ghostly mist roll in as we went through the Midlands. The grass was covered in thick frost. I worried for my outdoor toms that I'd planted out - away for 4 days so I couldn't water them. They were well hardened off but luckily we didn't actually have a ground frost here. Some gardeners must have worken up to a sad sight though. June 1st for me!

[rob the roller]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the warm welcome and advice!

I had originally planted just 4 in a row (I only have a small plot, and didn't realise a block was best), but after reading the posts here, (and also find out that the 3 rows of carrots that 'were' growing well has been decimated by 1 slug basically going up and down the rows eating the stem bases, over night - Grrr), I went out and got another 8 sweetcorn plants yesterday, which I planted in place of the carrots, alongside the existing 4 sweetcorn to make a block of 3x4.

Plot is layed out as below, the tomatoes aren't in the plot, they are in big pots by our shed.

Potato Sweetcorn
X...X .x.x.x
..X ....x.x.x
X...X .x.x.x
..X ....x.x.x

I'm not sure what type of sweetcorn the original 4 were, I got them from our local Wyevale garden center, and the tag justs says 'sweetcorn', but the 8 I got yesterday were from homebase, and are the supersweet variety - the only variety they had - which I didn't realise were so fussy. Will they pollinate each other? Or do the 2 variety needs to be exactly the same? The Wyevale ones look exactly the same as the Homebase/supersweet, but then I guess most sweetcorn looks the same at the early stages!?

Ben

Hi Ben

Re the planting, I am not sure how you would get on with just 4 plants. The fewest I have ever grown is about 20, and as you now know, these should be in a block and not a line. Did you know you can plant other, low growing crops between and below the corn? Why not e.g. grow them over lettuce or squash, that way you would make better use of the land and increase the size of the block, thus boosting the chances they will pollinate successfully.

Most years I have planted them at least 3 deep, sometimes 4 or 5 deep. I have usually done well enough with 3 deep. Whether you can succeed with 2deep I don't know, maybe somebody else can help.

I have never grown more than one type together. The textbooks warn against mixing supersweet varieties with standard traditional varieties as the standards apparently cross pollinate the supersweets preventing them from producing supersweet cobs. What this means in practice I don't know, but the inference is that you plant supersweet seeds and harvest standard cobs. Not a bad result if you weren't trying to grow supersweet in the first place.

If you have the space, there seems no reason why you can't grow them both, but they will have to be well apart to prevent cross pollination. If it was me, I would try to grow at least one tall crop (e.g runner beans) in between to reduce risks to the minimum. You might also want to consider the prevailing wind: the supersweet should be grown upwind of the standard.

I didn't mean to put you off trying to grow supersweet, you will certainly get something back for your efforts, and the kernels are incredibly sweet, sometimes almost too sugary to eat more than one cob at a time, but I have found supersweet cobs harder to fill and they do not seem to produce as many or such large ones as the standards.

Best of luck

Rob

[Farmer_Gyles]

i planted out 20 applause sweetcorn at home on 23rd april - they were only about 2-3" high at the time - look like they're all ok so far between 4" and 6"
planted about 16 swift sweetcorn on the allotment 4th may, all now between 4" and 6"
got another 20 (sundance?) to plant out on the allotment around the end of the month
(3 varieties, 1 at home, 2 in separate beds on the allotment, plenty of space between them!)

[Kittypickle]

I managed to get cobs with 2 plants next to each other. Unfortunately I hadn't quite appreciated where the cobs appeared and rather stupidly failed to notice that they had actually formed on the stalk until they were rather old and dried out. There were two on one stalk and one on the other.

Not sure I'm going to do any better this year as thought I'd be clever and I'd start them off in an old take away container lined with tissue, in my thermos cool bag with a hot water bottle for heat. Just opened them to have a look and I'm sure I could smell cooked sweetcorn so think I might have baked them by accident.

[BumbleB]

I started some sweetcorn seeds late (from the seed swop) and they have just sprouted on wet kitchen paper. I have moved them into individual pots of compost and they are in the unheated GH. I am not sure if this is correct or how long they will take to reach a planting out size.

Any info appreciated.

[Flummery]

Mine have been in an unheated greenhouse from sowing. Your should be fine. Plant them out when they get to about 6 - 8" and are reasonably easy to handle. Plant them in a block not long rows - they are pollinated by the wind so they stand a better chance with several short rows next to one another than a long row.

[BumbleB]

Thanks F. They survived overnight ok so I will do the same with the rest that are germinating on the windowsil. I then plan to plant in a block with lettuces growing beneath.

[Reks]

Hi Ben

Re the planting, I am not sure how you would get on with just 4 plants. The fewest I have ever grown is about 20, and as you now know, these should be in a block and not a line. Did you know you can plant other, low growing crops between and below the corn? Why not e.g. grow them over lettuce or squash, that way you would make better use of the land and increase the size of the block, thus boosting the chances they will pollinate successfully.

Most years I have planted them at least 3 deep, sometimes 4 or 5 deep. I have usually done well enough with 3 deep. Whether you can succeed with 2deep I don't know, maybe somebody else can help.

I have never grown more than one type together. The textbooks warn against mixing supersweet varieties with standard traditional varieties as the standards apparently cross pollinate the supersweets preventing them from producing supersweet cobs. What this means in practice I don't know, but the inference is that you plant supersweet seeds and harvest standard cobs. Not a bad result if you weren't trying to grow supersweet in the first place.

If you have the space, there seems no reason why you can't grow them both, but they will have to be well apart to prevent cross pollination. If it was me, I would try to grow at least one tall crop (e.g runner beans) in between to reduce risks to the minimum. You might also want to consider the prevailing wind: the supersweet should be grown upwind of the standard.

I didn't mean to put you off trying to grow supersweet, you will certainly get something back for your efforts, and the kernels are incredibly sweet, sometimes almost too sugary to eat more than one cob at a time, but I have found supersweet cobs harder to fill and they do not seem to produce as many or such large ones as the standards.

Best of luck

Rob

Hi,
I did not realie that a minimum of 20 f the best size in planting sweetcorns. I planted 16 seeds in total. so will it be ok to plant 4 in each row? is that what you would call a block?

[FoxHillGardener]

Hi,
I did not realie that a minimum of 20 f the best size in planting sweetcorns. I planted 16 seeds in total. so will it be ok to plant 4 in each row? is that what you would call a block?

yes 4 by 4 like this

X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X

Mine only went into their tubes the weekend just gone. I pre-germinated them on wet kitchen towel in a sandwich box. If they all take I'll have far too many, of course. The squirrels will be pleased though

[Reks]

yes 4 by 4 like this

X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X

Mine only went into their tubes the weekend just gone. I pre-germinated them on wet kitchen towel in a sandwich box. If they all take I'll have far too many, of course. The squirrels will be pleased though

thanks a lot!