Sweetcorn disappointment

[Twinsane]

I have no idea what's happened to our sweetcorn this year. I prepared the beds as normal (6th year on my lotty) with plenty of well rotted stuff, block planted them at around 1' apart but they didn't do well at all. I noticed when walking around the site that the sweetcorn on other plots looked the same. It didn't grow very tall, reaching around 4' and had sent up between 4 and 6 stems from the base. I waited for the brown tassels and harvested it only to find that it's not pollinated well with many of the cobs only having a few corn, some of them are shrivelled and a lot is (I think) going to seed. It's full of small corn with little hard spikes not the normal juicy corn.

I'm gutted, it's everyone's favourite and out of 28 plants I've got 4 edible cobs and I haven't got any chickens this year to appreciate the rejects either.)

The pics show what I mean with a bolted (?) corn next to a normalish cob in the last photo and even that has some of the little spikes on it.

[Bigmallly]

Every year I say I'm not gonna grow Sweetcorn, every year I do grow it, every year it's pants...........I really don't know why I bother, wishful thinking I guess but next year deffinately no Sweetcorn........I don't even like the suff................

[Greenleaves]

Certainly looks like poor pollination to me, do you grow in blocks? I also find that it requires a site that is somewhat sheltered from the wind. I tend to do OK but for me the problem is rats.

[Twinsane]

Lol Bigmally, I'll remind you that you're not going to plant any next September when it's pants

[Twinsane]

Yes Greenleaves, it's block planted and I put a little windbreak around it to protect it when I first set it out but I took it down after a while. Thankfully no rats!

[skeggijon]

I had a problem with Earwigs eating the silks on some of my cobs this year causing poor pollination on some.

[Lisasbolt]

Looks like poor pollination, i had similar this year.
I have done quite a bit of research and am surprised on how close you can grow the plants together, so next year i will have them closer and it may help with pollination.

[vixylix]

I had problems with earwigs eating the silks too - although mine were baby corn so no bad thing. Maybe baby corn is a better option for next year!!

[Chippy Minton]

It's not been sweetcorn weather here (ever actually). Luckily we do have chucks for the rejects.

[Stan79]

Rubbish sweetcorn this year for me too. The fields around me don't look like they're particularly great either. I think it's just the weather.

[Jungle Jane]

What variety are they? Does everyone on the allotment grow the same variety? There can be problems with super sweet varieties cross pollinating. Unless plants are 200 foot apart?
Food Gardening Guide :: National Gardening Association

[Twinsane]

It could be the weather that has been naff or the earwigs of which there seem to be a lot of this year.

Not sure if it's a problem with neighbour varieties cross pollinating. We've never had the problem before and this year I've also got 7' high debris netting as a windbreak around our plot.

Isn't it mad that they need to be so far apart to avoid cross pollinating and yet we have to block plant them close together to get them to pollinate?! lol

[Aberdeenplotter]

It could be your windbreaks causing the problem. They may simply not be getting shaken up enough. Alternatively, it could just be the cold nights earlier in the year which caused poor germination in many crops.

My sweetcorn is producing now which is really really late but better late than never.

[Twinsane]

It could be, I hadn't thought of that. Next year I'll give them a good shake!

And remember me when you're tucking into yours

[Zelenina]

Hi Twinsane. I looked at your corn piccies and it looks to me as if your cobs matured at different times and you picked some of them at the wrong time.

Corn doesn't "bolt" or "go to seed" as such because each kernel actually is a seed. But for sweetcorn we normally eat it before the seeds are fully ripe and dry.

The little spikes you are talking about are the ends of the silks where they broke off when you unwrapped the corn from its husk. Each kernel has a silk attached to it, which is how they get pollinated, so those are no problem.

Now the pics from left to right. The one on the left looks too mature and ripe, and the grains have started drying and hardening. In the sweeter types the kernels shrivel and wrinkle as they dry. If it was popcorn or meal corn they would stay plumper and smoother.

The middle one looks about the right stage but as you said, very poorly pollinated.

In the last picture, the one on the left looks just about perfect. The one on the right is maybe totally unpollinated, but it looks to me as if it could just be immature, and you didn't leave it long enough for the kernels to swell up.

It can be tricky knowing exactly the right time to pick a cob. But you can test them by unwrapping a bit of the husk and seeing if the kernels look nice and plump, then pressing your thumbnail into one of them. If milky juice comes out it is perfect. If the juice is clear it's a bit too early. If the juice has gone stiff and doughy, or the grain is too hard to press your nail into easily, they are past their best.

You often get poor pollination when only small numbers of plants are grown. It's better if you plant in blocks rather than rows, as someone else mentioned. Or it could be due to not enough or too much wind. Or because some cobs have silks ready for pollination when there are no tassels with ripe pollen.

The best way to improve pollination is to help nature by shaking the tassel of one plant over the silks of another. You'll see the pollen falling out like a cloud of dust if it is ready. Or shake the pollen from several tassels into a bag and sprinkle or brush it onto the silks. You'll probably need to do it several times, because the silks and tassels won't all be ready for pollination on the same day.