First Time Growing Sweetcorn From Seed

I put 10 seeds in a seed tray, covered it with a little propagator lid, placed it on the windowsill and waited for seedlings to appear.
It's now been just over a week and my little seedlings are now BIG little seedlings and some are too big too be able to replace the propagator lid without them touching and bending slightly at the top. (shown below)




I'm now at a loss as to what to do next as the box only says "seedlings can be transplanted into their own pots when they are big enough to be handled" and thats it.
At a risk of sounding stupid here but I have to ask this question so please be gentle
I want to grow the sweetcorn in the ground. Am I missing a step here where they go into separate pots and then into the ground or can I plant them straight in the ground now and at what distance from each other? OR are they too small to move at the moment and I should leave them be for a bit?

 

Hmm - you dont really want to be planting them out until the chance of frost is gone, 'cos frost will kill them, so I would try to find a nice deep container to transplant them into for a couple more weeks - you want them to produce a good root system, so I would look for something that you can put atleast 120mm of compost in - I think Im using the plastic tub the washing tablets came in (after washing it out & punching a few holes in the bottom).

Plant them out in a square (not a row) about 200mm (8" in old money) apart.

 

As OxfordNick said

You need to get them out of that seed tray promptly though, they dislike root disturbance, so the sooner you do it the better. Pot individually into pots and get them outside on mild days - that will slow down their growth, give them plenty of light, and "harden" them up ready for being planted outside (bring them in each night though). Now they are germinated they don't need the propagator lid on.

If you don't have suitable pots you can make some out of a sheet of newspaper - use a tabloid (perfect size ) , open up a double-sheet-spread, fold in half (top-to-bottom, not side-to-side), with the "fold" edge uppermost roll around an aerosol can with and inch or so hanging off the bottom of the can, tuck that bottom in and slide off the can. Should be about 2" diameter and 4" tall - Sweetcorn like a deep root run. Snuggle them up in a tray of some sort. The newspaper will survive the watering you give the plants, but don't stand them in water . When you plant them make a hole and put the whole thing in, without removing the newspaper (but do tear off the top edge so that no newspaper is poking up above the soil, otherwise that will act as a wick and dry them out)

You may have a problem with having started them this early, I reckon that it is only 3 weeks from germination to planting out, more than that and they get too big, they are not keen on being pot-bound and transplanted, they don't like cold and frost will kill them :(. The ones I sow this early I grow on in my greenhouse [I mean right up until harvest] the ones I sow for outside I start later. Dunno if you are milder in Berkshire though? You can, of course, plant out in about 3 weeks time (when they are too big for their pots) and cross your fingers - in some years you'll get away with it and maybe sow some more a bit later on in case the first lot catch the frost.

 

I've typed a description of Newspaper pots several times before, so to save me having to do it again I've put it on my blog with some pictures:

http://kgarden.wordpress.com/tips/how-to-make-pots-from-newspaper/

 

Thanks for that information Oxfordnick and Kristen it was really helpful. I will most certainly follow your instructions and hopefully we will have corn

 

best of luck with them , sweetcorn was the first seed i ever planted when i was 9 and the harvest i got from them ensured growing plants became a lifelong obsession for me, keep us updated as i would love to see how they do for you

 

Ah ... the harvest Sweetcorn straight from the garden is like Night & Day compared to shop-bought (as soon as you pick it the sugar starts turning to starch, so Supermarkets can't compare)

We don't pick ours until the pan is on the stove and the water boiling. I don't actually take the pan to the vegetable patch, nor of I "run" to the kitchen with the cobs, but I have heard it recommended!

 

Do you have Badgers near you Ashes? If you do, you'll need a fence round them just before they ripen.

 

I read somewhere that American Indians used to place a corn kernel in the mouth of a fresh caught fish and then planted with the fish .... as the corn grows, the fish decomposes and feeds the plant, thus giving them bumper crops

 

I don't know about badgers Ziggy, coz I live very close to the M4 but I know we do have foxes that come over from the allotments across the road.

 

Foxes should be OK, its just Badgers that love ripe Sweetcorn

 

Sounds interesting dim but I aint that brave to touch a dead fish it would be such a scene with me screaming and flapping everywhere.

 

Thanks for that Kristen, it would be so cool to see a badger in real life though. Something I have never managed to catch a glimpse of.

 

Nah, they would just come in the dead of night and nick all your ripe Sweetcorn!

 

that made me giggle