Success with sweetcorn

[TrixC]

I grew sweetcorn for the first time last year on my new allotment. All the plants produced cobs which tasted great, but I noticed that my plants all produced a single cob, whereas plants on other nearby plots produced multiple cobs per plant, even though the plants weren't obviously larger or healthier than mine. Does anyone know what determines how many cobs the plants produce? Is it down to the choice of variety (in which case can anyone recommend one?) or something to do with the conditions in which the plants are grown?

[Bigmallly]

Not sure if this will help you Trix:

Growing Sweet Corn | How To Grow | Grow Your Own

[Greenleaves]

I limit mine to a single cob, the secondary cobs are often smaller and not as sweet

[Thelma Sanders]

I usually get 2 cobs per plant, plus some part ones, but last Summer was not ideal weather-wise and I only got 1 full cob and a few part ones.
I think it was because we had wet & windy weather at pollination time.

Hopefully the weather will be better this year

[Nannysally99]

We only got one good cob each plant. All the second ones were very small.
Delicious though

[Dianaalice]

I have grown Lark for two years in a row and they have been brilliant, lovely and sweet, fairly big and about 4 at least on each plant. I'm going to grow the same again this year just because I love them and hope they will be as productive as in the past. I do give them a couple of doses of AsDaS own lawn feed. ? You never know.

[TrixC]

Thanks everybody. It was a very hot summer here in London, so the possible problems I had thought of were not enough water (I was generally only able to get to the allotment twice a week, and we're only allowed watering cans, not hoses), not enough feed, or competition from the winter squash I underplanted with. I grew the variety Luscious, perhaps I'll try Lark this year.

[Spunky]

I did lark last year and had at least 3-4 cobs on each plant, I had the plot holder opposite ask me what I did different but I didn't I even started them late!

[seasprout]

I usually get 2 cobs per plant, plus some part ones, but last Summer was not ideal weather-wise and I only got 1 full cob and a few part ones.
I think it was because we had wet & windy weather at pollination time.

Hopefully the weather will be better this year

Hi Thelma, what variety did you grow to get 2 cobs..?

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Like Diane and Spunky have grown "Lark" for the last 4 years, again with brilliant results, averaging 3 to 4 cobs per plant, but last year succumbed to some horrible "Stink Bug" thingy, the likes I have never seen before, so this year, trying to stay ahead of the game, did a little research regarding Tender Sweet as opposed to Super Sweet varieties, It's all about sugar n starch ratio's, So am gunna tip my toe in the water and try a "Super Sweet" this year, which apparently has more sugar content, so doesn't revert to starch as soon as picked as tender sweet do, after all it is a crop commercially grown for "Maize" but we as Amateur gardeners pick it unripe in the way of "Sweetcorn" and personally wouldn't want to do it any other way!

[Zelenina]

Hi Trix. I think it's at least partly to do with variety. Some varieties are known to produce more "tillers" or side shoots than others. So I recommend Goggling whichever variety you're interested in growing to try and get more info about it's growth habits.

But growing conditions like the weather, amount of water and nutrient supply will also have an effect. Some varieties can adapt the number of tillers according to the ease or difficulty of growth, and might produce only one stalk when stressed, but more if conditions are just right for them.

Spacing is also important, and they generally need more room to produce more cobs. The squash growing under them could have limited them too. I know the Native Americans grew corn with squash and beans, but their varieties and growing conditions were different from ours. Their corn, for example, grew much taller than modern varieties.

[Thelma Sanders]

Hi Thelma, what variety did you grow to get 2 cobs..?

I grow Lark

[Snadger]

First paragraph sums it up for me!

Sweetcorn seeds to buy from The Real Seed Catalogue UK

Haven't tried these yet but could be tempted!

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Snadge! Although tempting to an experienced gardener sush as yourself! With realms of knowledge and experience!
I appreciate from your New Years resolutions you are trying to avoid F1's! And can see exactly where your coming from! But the first two paragraph's to you make sense!

But to the novice! But wish you all the best with it!

Oh! And by the way! Thanks for introducing me to "Mooli" last year, never heard of it! But besotted!

[Snadger]

Snadge! Although tempting to an experienced gardener sush as yourself! With realms of knowledge and experience!
I appreciate from your New Years resolutions you are trying to avoid F1's! And can see exactly where your coming from! But the first two paragraph's to you make sense!

But to the novice! But wish you all the best with it!

Oh! And by the way! Thanks for introducing me to "Mooli" last year, never heard of it! But besotted!

Apologies for sounding like a latter day evangelist. I tried to find non-F1 varieties of sweetcorn from all the mainstream seed merchants and only managed to find a minipop variety, until these two.
Unfortunately the mooli I have relied on for the last couple of seasons is an F1 hybrid.(Bugger!) I have just harvested loads of seed from a plant I started in 2014 so will utilise these seeds and hopefully strip back its F1-iness to give me some plants that will come true by seed in the future.