Sweetcorn in greenhouse, or out?

[SlugLobber]

I was planning to put it in the greenhouse, but should I rethink? I know it's wind pollinated, but was thinking of 'sweetcorn sex', a la tomatoes, but now I'm thinking I should dig some more turf over. Arrggghhh!! Never grown it, before, but I've got 12 strong little blighters ready to go.

[Snadger]

Height is a problem in the greenhouse I found! Whereas it will attain a height of 5 to 6 feet outdoors, in the sheltered environment of the greenhouse it could quite easily attain 8 foot in height!
Most varieties are bred for the British weather and should give a reasonable crop outdoors.

[WendyC]

Don't plant out just yet -they don't like it cold or frosty.

[kathyd]

Well mine are in the polytunnel and that's where they're staying - I'd probably kill them if I tried moving them! Lol . If they grow too big (wishful thinking I suspect), they'll just have to bend over or something. It was almost impossible to find any seeds over here, and I can't remember where I got my one and only packet - and there were hardly any seeds inside so unless my neighbour can find any easily on her visit to the UK next week, I won't be able to try them outside after all .

[SlugLobber]

OK, looks like I'll have to dig out some containers. I've run out of lottie space, so I might put them behind the greenhouse, where they'll still get lots of sun, but they'll be against the fence. More shovelling of compost. Yay!

[SlugLobber]

Well mine are in the polytunnel and that's where they're staying - I'd probably kill them if I tried moving them! Lol . If they grow too big (wishful thinking I suspect), they'll just have to bend over or something. It was almost impossible to find any seeds over here, and I can't remember where I got my one and only packet - and there were hardly any seeds inside so unless my neighbour can find any easily on her visit to the UK next week, I won't be able to try them outside after all .

Kathy, tell your friend to call into Wilkos (Wilkinsons). That's where I got mine and I got 100% germination, too.

[JAMES10]

New grower

Hiya

I am just starting to think about growing my own, I really like sweetcorn and thought this would be a good start!??! for that reason only, Any help or advise offered would be much appreachated

[kathyd]

Hiya

I am just starting to think about growing my own, I really like sweetcorn and thought this would be a good start!??! for that reason only, Any help or advise offered would be much appreachated

Hi James

My polytunnel sweetcorn did OK, but I must admit the outdoors stuff did better... and I suffered from mice biting through the stalks of young plants to get at the seed underneath - don't know if planting out a bit later/bigger would help with this? Alternatively I discovered you can push the snapped stalk into the ground and it rooted itself... cool eh? If you grow it indoors, you'll need to shake the tassels regularly to make sure the pollen gets distributed onto other plants, otherwise you'll get no cobs. I found it really hard to tell when the cobs were ripe and ready for eating to be honest, and wasted quite a lot of them through making bad choices... I'm not really sure sweetcorn is the easiest thing to start with, but I'm sure someone else will be along soon to make some other suggestions .

[veg man]

OK, looks like I'll have to dig out some containers. I've run out of lottie space, so I might put them behind the greenhouse, where they'll still get lots of sun, but they'll be against the fence. More shovelling of compost. Yay!

You have a few months yet sweetcorn dont like the cold at all mine dont go out until after the last frosts some time in May

[Patchninja]

Kathy, goggle Graines Baumaux. They have 5 varieties of "mais" to choose from. Their catalogue is great.

They say you need to wait until the soil has warmed up before sowing. Ready to eat in around 80 days.

[SarzWix]

The posts above James' are from April last year, so no need to worry

James, sweetcorn is generally sown into biodegradable pots indoors, and planted out pot and all once all risk of frost is past. That means where you are you won't need to sow until late April-ish. Keep an eye on the forum and you'll see others start to post when they're sowing theirs. The 'What I Did Today' thread is a good guide for when to do things

[Alison]

I don't use the biodegradeable pots but find root trainers very good - apart from that, pretty much the same method.

[darkbrowneggs]

I am in a very windy spot, and unless it is a brilliant summer I have no success with outdoor sweetcorn. I only grow in the polytunnel now, but won't germinate the seed till much later. I start them indoors, and once growing well put them in a bed in the polytunnel.

As long as they are not too close together you can grow a small melon between them which will ripen after they are cut down. I tried the "three sisters" but it didn't work for me, that is sweetcorn melon and climbing beans all together. Would probably be good if you could increase the spacing of the sweetcorn, but it defeats the object in a polytunnel, plus I am not that keen on "French" type beans, and prefer runners.

You need to shake them regularly so the pollen from the top feathery bits falls onto the silky tassels on the cob bits. I read somewhere to save some pollen and use for late forming cobs, though forgot to do it this year so those plants with three cobs had erratic germination

I like Extra Tender and Sweet. Mainly because it is a good germinator and regular cropper in the polytunnel, sometimes it can almost be a bit toooo sweet, but I can live with that, and it they are I just knibble at them raw - delish!!!!