Problems with my sweetcorn

[CarolineW]

It looked like I was going to get a wonderful crop of sweetcorn this year, but while waiting for the cobs to ripen, some of them have begun to 'bolt', erupting from their husks and having only a few 'grains' left on them.

Does anyone know what is going on, and if there's anything I can do to save the rest of the cobs?

[Thelma Sanders]

any chance of a photo, as I'm not quite sure what you mean by erupting from their husks

[CarolineW]

Hi Thelma Sanders - sorry for taking so long to get back to you. Getting a photo proved to be a major challenge! I still don't have a very good one. Basically, they sort of shoot upward leaving their sheaf behind and sort of go to seed. I'm attaching a photo, but I don't know if it really shows what's going on. It's starting to look like I won't get a crop as more and more of them are doing this

[rustylady]

I think someone else posted something similar on another thread a few days ago, but I don't know what causes it. The only thing I can think of is that it should have been picked earlier.

[CarolineW]

That's exactly what it looks like, rustylady - as if it were left too long. But the cobs weren't ripe - those remaining still aren't. Some were fat but not yet ripe, and some which have done this were not even fat yet.

I'm harvesting some of them as baby and 'teenager' corn rather than lose them altogether, but am still hoping that if I can find what's causing it I can do something to prevent it happening to the remaining plants which haven't as yet been affected.

[rustylady]

What variety was it Caroline? What do you mean by fat but not ripe?

[Thelma Sanders]

Last year I had a few cobs like that. They seemed to be a weird mix of tassels and cobs all growing from where a normal cob would have been. The variety was Incredible, and another plot holder had the same thing, same variety but different supplier. This year I ordered a different variety and had no trouble, although I do prefer to grow Incredible.
Those who know more than I, can perhaps advise, do you think it's a genetic problem and that variety needs to be off my list for ever?

[CarolineW]

It's Double Standard, from Real Seeds. And yes, what you're describing is what it's like, Thelma Sanders.

Yes, I'm sure that 'fat' is not the technical term :-) I mean filled out, maturing. The way it looks when you'd start keeping an eye on what the tassle's doing and checking to see if it's ripe yet.

[SarzWix]

Caroline, mine that have gone horribly wrong (flower stalk growing out of the top of the cob) are also from Real Seeds. The other cobs just aren't pollinated, with only about 5 kernels swelled on each! They have looked like really healthy plants all season, only to fail miserably at the last hurdle

[CarolineW]

Poor Sarah. Yes, mine looked great all season too - I was excitedly looking forward to a really good crop.

An old timer at the allotment, whose advice I've just asked, says I should have cut off the side shoots (he used a word beginning with T which I can't remember) and said that the problem with my cobs is due to the plant being exhausted and unable to finish the job, as it were. He then took me to his 'patch' (read 'forest') of sweetcorn and gave me some cobs of seriously delicious corn, bless him.

I suspect that's the key. He's been growing sweetcorn since he was a boy, so we're talking about roughly 50+ years of experience here, and he learned how to grow it from someone he used to holiday with as a boy who grew a field of it every year. He told me that he'd read that the current advice is to NOT cut off the side shoots, so that perhaps he was wrong, and to make my own mind up. I say, I'm not going to dismiss 50+ years of experience lightly! I suspect that most modern F1 varieties don't produce many side shoots and so don't have this problem, but that the old style 'real' sweetcorn does, hence our problems with seeds from Real Seeds. That's my hypothesis, anyway. I've always grown standard F1 varieties in the past, and never had a problem. This year I wanted to keep the seed (sigh).

If I can get the courage up I'll do a section of F1 next year, and a section of old style sweetcorn but cutting off the side shoots, and see what happens.

Meanwhile, this year's sweetcorn is a major disappointment. Hopefully it's a case of 'you live and learn'.

[oldie]

I've been growing the bi-colour ones from Real Seeds for a few years now and have had great crops and I don't take off side shoots. This years crop is as good as any except it got flattened in the recent gale.

[CarolineW]

Hmmm. Not that then - any other ideas?

In one of them I found some woodlice noshing away, and wondered whether pest damage could cause it???