Sweetcorn

[berksmike]

Anyone been as silly as me and sown their sweetcorn far too early?

Think i was overestimating the effects of global warming on Berkshire this spring...

[pigletwillie]

Erm, no.

I sow my corn in 2" pots in April ready to go out in the last half of May. Generally this is just before we go on holiday for a fortnight so they get well watered in and then abandoned until our return.

Still, they generally do well on it as we get a good return for our efforts.

Perhaps some more seed ready for a later sowing would be prudent,

[SimonCole]

People have planted out small plantlets on my lottie!

[Hazel at the Hill]

Anyone been as silly as me and sown their sweetcorn far too early?

Even I'm not that impatient! Cool - world first!

[dwrudd]

I planted some up in Peat pots last weekend and have them in the greenhouse, I have done them early just in case we have a good spring summer. I shall plant a few more as backup in early april, but if you miss the boat now and conditions are right

We will be the only one muching on early cobs when everyone else is kicking themselves for not showing blind faith.

Thats the theory anyway

Darren

[la cebolla grande]

We planted indoors in peat pots last weekend. Never grown them before. OH, a gardening-virgin wanted to give them a go, and as I can stand Sweetcorn, sorry yes I know that is almost treasonous, never bothered to grow it. Nothing showing yet so a fair while before ready to go up to the lottie. Maybe still a bit early??

LCG

[Peter]

Sowed some 23rd Feb.

Was left over seed from last year though.

[wellie]

I have! and I'll tell you why....
Last year, I cocked my sweetcorn up so badly, that I've decided to have a few 'dummies' at it this year before I go for it 'for real'....!

In the end last year I suspect I was being way too critical of our 'actual' achievement, but given that I'd had such a fantastic crop the year before, it naturally makes you analyse what you did and didn't do overall to make it happen? And as (Alice?) 'A Very Helpful Grape' proferred earlier this year, you could sow early, learn, and if it doesn't quite come together, move on and sow again later, having lost completely nothing, which is a brilliant idea Alice.

So, having now pre-germinated my Sweetcorn 'Incredible' on damp kitchen paper yesterday and the day before, today I popped them 'on top' of some compost-filled Rootrainers, with the root facing downwards, and I am going to make myself NOT water them now until I absolutely need to, in case of rotting the seedcasing off, as I did last year....

[Alice]

Wellie, can you get your root trainers into a wee tent in a freezer bag ? That way they won't dry out and you won't jave to water them.
And yes, I am a great believer in a dummy run for new things, that way you know what's coming. That's why I suggested all newbies went for an early, small sowing. That way they could see for themselves what would happen - it would get leggy, it would all need pricked out and there would be no space for it, it would be too cold to plant it out etc, etc but they would have learned more than anybody could tell them. And if it went on the compost heap, a small price to pay.
Good luck with the corn. I've never grown it before, this will be my first atempt so think I might be back with some questions. You can do the dummy run for me.

[wellie]

Alice, hello again!
My sweetcorns are in their Rootrainers, with the cover on that comes with the rootrainers, so they're nice and cosy...!
Having pregerminated the whole packet (which seems extreme at first, until you get casualties, then you begin to appreciate that you DID sow and pre-germ them all at once!) on account of the fact that with any Sweetcorn crop, you want all the males to fertilise all the females, and all at the same time, for maximum crop harvest.
At least if HALF the pre-germinated seeds survive, you've got half a decent crop to plant, and can start another 'marginally later' for another area.
You need a 'block' of plants with sweetcorn rather than a 'row' because the pollen needs to fall from the male flowers onto the female tassels, and this is best achieived in a 'block of plants' (3 x 3 x 3 kind of formation).
Anyway, I'm rambling.... and, fortunately for me, I have done this before, so I do know what I'm talking about!
So, back to the thread, yes, and if I don't succeed this early, I shall be trying again ever so slightly later.
And I'd be interested to hear what other Grapes are doing/thinking on the subject too.

[Flummery]

I've grown sweetcorn a number of times - I love it - it's never fresh enough from the supermarket. You do need to plant out in blocks rather than rows because the wind pollinates the plants and the pollen gets a better chance of landing in the right place if the plants are in blocks. I won't sow mine yet. April is soon enough here.

[momol]

I've just sow my sweet baby corn yesterday ( don't know it's variety, it was from the Netherlands seed company ), after reading all the informations, I felt a bit down... hopefully it will be just fine.

Momol