Sweet corn in potato bags?

Hi All,

I would like to grow some sweet corn for the first time this year, but am struggling for space. I am also going to grow early spuds for the first time this year. I was wondering if I can plant the sweet corn in the potato bags after harvesting the spuds? Does anyone else grow sweet corn on pots/bags?

Russ

 

I think as ive read that early spuds can be harvested up to july and sweetcorn needs planting out in may/june?if it can be done to coincide then sweetcorn needs to be grown in blocks of 4,not sure how many spud bags you are going to use thou ?
Plus theres a chance they may not ripen if not enough time,im learning as first yr last yr growing veg

 

I grew sweet corn in a 1ft deep raised bed last year and they were fine... I'm new to veg growing and I planted 4 plants in one hole (not realising they should be split and have their own space to grow!) but they all still grew and produced around 3-4 corns each!! So you don't need lots of space
Julie

 

They need planting in a block (because they are wind pollinated) and probably about 15" apart - although if you are growing them in bags I suppose you could pollinate them yourself - but if they are outside the wind will disburse the pollen and not leave you any to use manually.

Other thing to consider is how many Cobs you want at any one time to "make a meal". most modern Supersweet varieties (I personally wouldn't grow the old fashioned type, nothing like as sweet) usually only produce one Cob per plant, maybe 2 if you are lucky, so 4 plants is going to give you one meal for 4 people ... or maybe a coupleof meals if you only have half a cob each.

They are greedy feeders so if you are planting after Spuds in the bags make sure to re-fertilise well.

Not quite sure when your spud crop will finish, but Sweetcorn outdoors needs to be started off as early as possible (but avoiding last-frost and also any chilly-nights in May), otherwise they won't be ripe before the nights start to draw in. So if the spuds are not out soon enough you'd be cutting it fine with your Sweetcorn crop. You can raise the Sweetcorn plants in pots, and then plant them into the planters when you are ready, so that will gain you about 4 weeks [before they are outgrowing the pots and need to be planted]

 

I Grew Sweetcorn last year in one of those multi purpose plastic tubs. I had 7 in the tub and they did well. Photo below. Got a good few cobs off them anyway. I have sewn them earlier this year as I lost a few when the weather turned colder later on in the year but then we live in scotland. Good luck!

 

Oh forgot to say that I kept them in our pop up greenhouse until they got too tall then took them outside, I did this cause we live at the top of a hill and get high winds and the year before our sweetcorn got damaged.