Baby Sweetcorn

Does anyone on GC grow mini-corn successfully? How do you do it and which variety works best? I've tried a couple of times, but ended up with stunted cobs bearing normal-sized grains.
It's prime maize country here, so it shouldn't be a problem...just need to find the right variety

 

In my opinion its a waste of time. I have read of some who grow it and love it, but I've grown it and grown to hate it. Sorry.

Takes up similar amount of room to ordinary corn, but you have to pick the cobs when they are tiny, so low yield so-to-speak. I found it impossible to gauge when the cobs were ready and blink-and-miss it, so we would harvest some too early and have to bin them ... or harvest them too late and they were like rock - and they got binned too. You can't really see the mini-cobs inside their sheaths, as they are picked so immature, which is why I found it so difficult to gauge it - so you have to pick some to see, and then if they aren't ready they've been wasted.

I took off the (male) tassels as they formed, which stopped pollen being released, and fertilising the female silks (and also prevented them cross-fertilising the full size Sweetcorn that I was growing nearby - that is important because, unlike most crops, cross fertilised Sweetcron wrecks the kernels on the cobs - rather than just cross fertilising the seed for next year).

My advice would be to just grow real corn. Tastes much better (although my kids loved baby corn - but they've grown up enough now to like the real thing!) and much easier to know when it is ready, plus there is a good two weeks, or so , within which it can be harvested, not just a day or two at the most that it seemed to me was the time window for mini corn.

 

Thanks, both. That explains why the first attempt wasn't a success....must have left them on the plant too long. I didn't realise that they are just immature cobs.
I did mention to OH that they'd have to be grown at the other end of the plot to the normal sweetcorn, but given your advice, don't think we'll bother! Now off to research growing water chestnuts and watercress

 

Definitely can't give you any advice / help with those !!