Sweetcorn

rolstherat

I only grew 5/6 plants but in a block. Maybe the low number affected fertilisation and it not working. I have about 10 in my greenhouse so will plant them all out but that's a lot of space.

You can Intercrop with a quick grower like lettuce I guess

RAS

If you can only grow a small number of sweetcorn plants, you need to know how to pollinate it to get good seed set.

Basically you use the same method for ensuring good set as seed savers use in the States to ensure the purity of heritage varieties, minus the bagging. If you can get Ashworth or Deppe on seed saving from the library, read up on it there; I can't find anything on-line explaining it.

To hand pollinate you need to keep your eyes open for two things; those big tassels on the top and the tiny nascent cobs growing in the axils of the leaves. When you see the first threads appear on the cobs, cut the very top of the cob off leaving a quarter inch/5mm circle of pistels exposed. Let that grow on for one day.

Next day collect as much pollen as possible from the stamens on the tassels above. The styles will have grown a few mm and look like a small brush each style leads to one potential kernel and is receptive over its entire length. Scatter pollen over little brush of styles and hopefully every one will be fertilised.

Voila, one very well furnished cob of corn. It only take a minute or two each day.

To do this as a seed saving technique you need a minimum of 100 plants with 50 for pollen and 50 for seed and have to bag both tassels and cobs before and after pollenation. They sell special bags for this in the US but I do not think they can be obtained here.

valk_scot

I put mine in a staggered grid..if you plant on a square grid they need to be 12" apart from the neigbiur but if you stagger the rows the 12" only needs to be on the diaganol, iyswim? The minimum number I'd plant is nine but if you have less, you can assist the plants to polinate each other by going out once a day and shaking the long anthers at the tip, running your hand over it then transferring the pollen to the silky flower heads beneath. I used to grow 70+ plants at a time when I had the allotment but I'd still transfer the pollen around a couple of times per week, I usually got both cobs on the plant if I did this. There's always one big one and one small one though! But if you hand pollinate the cobs will be mostly full with few gaps.

Mojisola

rolstherat wrote: »

I have tried growing them but been unsuccessful. Trying again this year. The plants grew tall and has about 4 cobs each. The problem I has was the cobs looked great but when I peeled back the leaves most of the kernals has not formed?

We don't have a long enough growing season to get more than a couple of cobs from each plant. If more form, snap them off so that the plant can put its energy into making two good cobs.

Of course, those need to be pollinated to form properly so check the advice in other posts.

valk_scot

There are special cultivars that are bred for short growing seasons. I use one from Kings seeds that's particularly suitable for up here in Scotland, it still needed a good summer but it never failed completely. I found the plants just didn't grow as tall in a poor summer, they'd be three feet tall rather than five or six. Still got two cobs though.

This is the variety I used, from Kings.

Pixiechic

Thank you

I have been looking online about how to 'hand pollinate'. It's a bit confusing as I'm not sure what to look out for . When the time comes and they are growing, I might take some pics and post them to see when a good time to do the brushing of pollen is , if that's okay .

Last night I popped another 8 seeds into the propagator, I will hopefully have a decent crop!

I have also read about some sort of sweet corn bug and suggestions of oil to put somewhere which blocks them. I'm just not quite sure where to put the oil?

Thanks for all the advice, been more than helpful

realfood

Just a few hints. Hand pollination is easy. Just shake the plant when the pollen is mobile, ensuring that it falls onto the female silks.
The plants usually do not need staking. My plot is exposed and I have never had problems.
Do not bother with "three sisters" as the varieties of corn, beans and pumpkins traditionally used, are not harvested till they are fully mature. We want to harvest the sweetcorn at the peak of tenderness. Also in our climate, the sweetcorn needs all the light that it can get.
The only interplanting advisable would be something like lettuce.
In northern UK, with a very short growing season, choose a quick growing variety and cover with a cloche for the first month, to really get them growing.
The whole cobs freeze well, still have some in my freezer, Yum!!
Some suitable advice is here:- http://www.growyourown.info/page129.html

RAS

I found that even corn from traditional open polinated varieties is very sweet if picked and cooked immediately; the supermarkets need stuff that will stay sweet for days rather than minutes or hours. I nearly spat out the first mouthful because it was so much sweeter than I expected.

I found Triple Play (unfortunately not available here) and Black Aztec and Hookers Sweet Indian very quick to grow and ripen. End May, early June sowing and end August/early September ripening - about 65-70 days although it was a nice summer.

Foxy0810

Pixiechic wrote: »

Thank you, I didn't realise that one went in the middle too . Good news as less space required!

These are last years seeds which I didn't expect to germinate, I just couldn't throw them away! They have germinated though so I will see how they go!

I have seeds that are years old I never throw them away I just keep trying if the germinate its great 99% do germinate

Pixiechic

Foxy0810 wrote: »

I have seeds that are years old I never throw them away I just keep trying if the germinate its great 99% do germinate

Thank you

I know that some keep seeds but store them either in the fridge or some other way to preserve them.

I didn't store mine properly, or as I thought I should, so I was unsure as to how well they would do! They seem to be doing fine though

Thanks