Sweetcorn

Foxy0810

Mine are stored in my gardening bag or in seed tins I don't put them in fridge or freezer

Mojisola

RAS wrote: »

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.

Fresh sweet corn straight from the plant is a revelation! For the new growers - the cobs are just about ripe when the silk browns off and shrivels. To test, pull back some leaves from around the cob and puncture a kernel a couple of inches down from the top - if the juice that comes out is watery, the cob isn't ripe so pull the leaves back and wait a day or so. The ideal is a milky liquid. If the liquid is opaque, it's gone past its best and won't be as sweet but will still taste good.

There's a saying that in order to taste them at their sweetest, you should bring the water up to the boil, go down the garden and pick the cobs, run back up to the kitchen and pop them in the boiling water!

As soon as the cobs are picked, the sugars start to turn into starches so, if you are going to freeze your corn, do it as soon as possible after picking.

Pixiechic

Very pleased this morning as I have gone round doing the watering duty and lifted the lid on my propagator to see 6 out of my 8 first batch of sweet corn with big shoots

I might sow a few more in case the other two don't germinate.

So far, so good

EmmiH

I'm not sure if this is useful, but beware squirrels! I used to grow sweetcorn (in blocks) and had fabulous results until three years ago when the squirrels discovered them. They're not stupid creatures and they have long memories - last year they didn't even wait for the cobs to fully form before they stripped them, despite netting.

valk_scot

And rats. Rats LOVE sweetcorn. I remember one particularly bad year for rats, I could be walking down the central path on the allotment and there would be half a dozen rats up the sweetcorn plants stuffing their faces.

Pixiechic

EmmiH wrote: »

I'm not sure if this is useful, but beware squirrels! I used to grow sweetcorn (in blocks) and had fabulous results until three years ago when the squirrels discovered them. They're not stupid creatures and they have long memories - last year they didn't even wait for the cobs to fully form before they stripped them, despite netting.

Hopefully mine will sneak under the radar too but I doubt it. Nice way to feed the squirrels though :cool:.

macma

We've grown sweetcorn for several years, we've stopped planting on the lottie as the resident badger munches his way through every crop.
I sow seeds in cells on top of compost ,covering only when shoot appears. I've done the 3 sisters thing with butternut squash and climbing French beans and it was quite successful. The beans scrambled up the corn and the squash scrambled round it
I've never supported corn and it's never fallen over despite a windy site. I agree with getting the water boiling before you pick, and I always blanch cobs (cut in half) before freezing. Fresh they taste divine but even out of the freezer they beat anything you can buy.

Pixiechic

Yay! My first batch of 8 sweetcorn have now sprouted, a couple have leaves now .

Question is, what do I do with this first 8 that are now sprouting?

Should I keep them in the propagator with the others that I only did a few days ago? Or do I take them out of the propagator and put them on the windowsill?

Not sure and I don't really want to self sabotage if I can help it

Any advice gratefully received

Linda32

I would take them out of the propogator and put them on the windowsill and just hang on for the others to catch up. They will do.

Pixiechic

Linda32 - thank you so much , I've been in a bit of a quandary!

I'm now off to take them out and put them on the windowsill...........