Help Corn

GeorgeBean · Apr 27, 2010

I would like to grow half a dozen corn cobs for fun, what do I do?

I would like to grow them in a tub.

NatalieB · Apr 28, 2010

If you can manage more than half a dozen do so! We always plant around 100 plants at least.....as it's very addictive once you have it fresh off the stalk!

Each plant has a fairly large and expanding root system, and we always plant ours two feet apart. It is important though to keep them in a 'group' so, to plant in a block rather than in a row. If you have one stalk per tub, then group them all together to form that square I guess - rather than lining them all up against the fence.

Like I said though - plant more if you possibly can - if you haven't had corn on the cob fresh from your own plant before, then you haven't really experienced how good corn is! I bought it once from a grocery store - and never, ever again - I could understand why corn on the cob is not a popular veg in most households here!

Marley Farley · Apr 28, 2010

Hi George,
Natalie is right.. Until you taste fresh picked from your garden there is nothing else... I always grow it for my grand children to pick & eat...!!!!!!!!
Have a look at this article.... I am growing mine in a large paving slabs delivery crates 1 1/2 meters square this year as am experiment so I can use the ground for other crops.. I don't know if the crop will be better or worse........ :dh: I just love a challenge or an experiment..!!! :yho:

We grow our sweetcorn in a large recycled storage bin

Posted August 31, 2006 Comments(11)
An old friend of ours, Edward Twentyman, used to tell us how delicious corn on the cob is if it is harvested and cooked within minutes.
“Once the cob is cut, the sugar starts to turn to starch.”
Now that we grow sweetcorn ourselves we’ve found this fact to be true. Unfortunately for us, Edward and his wife Chantal moved to France a few years ago. They are defenitely not the couple whose story ends this post! Tonight we are going to enjoy the first two cobs of the season. As an accompaniment to pork chops baked with a couple of tablespoons of our own wild plum jelly (click on August 21 2006 for the recipe). We will also be feasting on our round courgettes, dipped in plain flour with a good dash of pepper and salt, and fried gently in garlic infused olive oil until soft. Today the cobs will be baked in the oven but they are better grilled, I think.If you grow sweetcorn in a border, the plants have to be at least 12″ apart in rows 12″ apart and have to be grown in blocks, to enable wind pollination of the female flowers. The plants grow to statuesque proportions, often over 5′, so can cut out the light to other vegetables in the kitchen garden.A great way of getting around this problem is to grow sweetcorn in a very large pot, as the plants can be raised much closer together. I found an old plastic storage bin a couple of years ago, which is ideal. The sort of thing that you can find in Homebase for storing toys. Even at high street prices, these sturdy containers are much cheaper than buying giant terracotta or even plastic pots. I drilled some holes in the bottom of my recycled one for drainage.
I plant the sweetcorn in a mixture of compost from last year’s tomato grow-bags and some good compost from our composting bin. They do really well. We grow 7 plants in this 17″ (diameter) x 14″ (deep) pot and cut at least 3 cobs from each plant. I’m not sure how many cobs per plant one can expect from sweetcorn planted in a border.
Every time that I see our pot of tall sweetcorn I remember a holiday in France, deep in the heart of sweetcorn growing country. We were staying in a gite that belonged to an Irish couple who had moved to France to enjoy self sufficiency and the good life. A local French farmer proudly announced that the couple’s teenage sons were helping with the harvest. When we asked in what capacity, he explained, “They are castrating the mice.” We were astonished that the French were operating such a fiddly form of pest control, especially when he complemented them on their use of hefty machetes. Suddenly the penny dropped and we realised that their summer jobs were just cutting sweetcorn cobs and the ‘mice’ that he’d mentioned was the maize.
Tips and Tricks:

[*]f growing sweetcorn in pots, put a nutritious mulch around the base of the stems (where you can see a bobbly root growth) at the beginning of July. This helps to stabilise the stems and increases productivity.
[*]If you have a glut, sweet corn freezes well. Blanche before freezing.
Click to expand...

Axie-Ali · Apr 28, 2010

Hi, lots of great advice on here, all I would add is make sure they are in very sunny spot, one or two on the edge of our crop last year were in partial shade and only got about a foot tall and no cobs!

Marley Farley · Apr 28, 2010

:thumb: Good to know that Axie.. :thumb:

galaxysue · Apr 28, 2010

wish I had enough space to grow 100 normally do about 12 just to say we have the experience of having them fresh from our garden, I also trying some ornamental corn these are different coloured cobs useful for dried flower arrangements

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Help Corn

GeorgeBean Gardener

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Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

Axie-Ali Gardener

Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

galaxysue Gardener

Help needed for a 'problem corner'.

Growing Sweetcorn, Rubarb, Watermelon HELP

Identify fruit trees & pruning - help

Inherited pond, first time pond owner help!

Irrigation system help

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Help Corn

GeorgeBean Gardener

NatalieB Gardener

Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

Axie-Ali Gardener

Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

galaxysue Gardener

Help needed for a 'problem corner'.

Growing Sweetcorn, Rubarb, Watermelon HELP

Identify fruit trees & pruning - help

Inherited pond, first time pond owner help!

Irrigation system help

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