Growing Sweetcorn

sammyroser

Hello all.

I am growing sweetcorn for the first time this year and would like some advise.

I originally bought 'Bodacious' and then was sent some free seeds which contained the 'Swift' variety so I decided to try 4 of each too see which ones tasted/performed better.

I know sweetcorn should be grown together in a block so was planning to put them all together. However reading the back of the Bodacious it says 'for best results grow away from other sweetcorn varieties'

Does anyone know what would happen if I grew them all together? I don't have the space to grow one variety elsewhere without digging up a section of the lawn (which I don't think certain family members would be too please too see)

Should I just grow them all together or give up on one set of plants. And if so does anyone know either of these varieties and which are nicer?

Linda32

I think I would leave the ones meant to be grown on their own and carry on with the others in block form. If you have enough.

I don't know why the packet should say that, but if it does there must be a reason.

Can't really say which would be the nicest. I'm sure most sweetcorn tastes the same, and homegrown always tastes nicer anyway.

Lotus-eater

If you grow some supersweet corn next to others that are not, the cobs may turn out with less than a sweet taste.

I think from the 2 vartieties you have picked, you will be ok. But 4 plants of corn might not do that well pollinating each other, 8 may struggle a bit.

valk_scot

The usual minimum number of sweetcorn plants to ensure sucessful self pollination is in a 4x4 block, that is 16 plants. Less than this and you need to start hand pollinating to get good, well filled cobs. So if you're going to grow two seperated blocks of four you'll definately have to hand pollinate them to keep the varieties seperate. If you grow all eight together then you'll probably get a range of eight different flavours, which may or may not be as sweet as you'd like.

RAS

Hi

A tip on growing small numbers of sweetcorn plants; do what the breeders do to ensure safe pollination and you end up with excellent cobs.

Sweetcorn are wind pollinated so ideally you need a lot of plants. If you are trying to grow seed of special varieties, you have to hand pollinate them and cover the flowers and nascent cobs.

Hand pollinating is really easy and if you want to eat the results, you do not need to isolate the results.

When you first see pollen on the flower stems (the wavy bits at the top) look for the baby cobs forming where the leaf joins the stem. It may be two inches long or even smaller but if you can see the tiniest bit of tassel showing, get a sharp knife.

Cut the very top of the baby corn off (you want the diameter of the bit you cut to be 3-5mm exposing cut filaments).

Leave the plant for 24 hours, by which time the area you cut will have grown and you will have a little brush of tassel ends. Now grab some pollen in you hands, or collect it by knocking it into a paper bag. Drizzle a little pollen over the tassel brush and you will have full pollination and fat cobs.

If you are growing older varieties of corn which are not as sweet, the speed at which you can get the cob from plant to plate matters a lot. Modern hybrids will stay sweet for longer. Try and eat older varieties within half a day of picking.

lolly5648

I only had three sweetcorns last year - the others died, but I did manage to get a few cobs from each one. Didnt realise you needed a block of 16 , I thought four would do. I learn something new each month.