Evening all,Bob Flemming here, My sweetcorn grown from seeds in the green house are about 4 to 5 inch high at the moment,when do you plant these outside?are they quite hardy even as a seedling?and finally what kind of soil compost would you recommend for these. Many thanks and happy growing,Bob:thumb:
The trick with Sweetcorn is to try to give it a long enough season so that the cobs mature before the Autumn sets in ... The newer F1 varieties have shorter growing seasons, so that helps, as does starting them off "indoors". I don't think you should be planting them out until all danger of frost has past in your area You need to plant them in a rectangular block, rather than a row, because that helps pollination. They hate root disturbance so be careful when planting - ideally grow them in peat pots which can be platned whole (I am using pots that I made from newspaper this year)
Hi Bob, I have been growing sweetcorn for many years, and find it does best (despite all that the books & seedpackets say) if you keep it in the greenhouse, either in border soil or 3 to a growbag. Best of all is to use those ring planter thingies which you fill with topsoil on top of growbags. I've had really good results -- lovely long cobs, absolutely delicious. I've grown some outdoors as well but the cobs are never as good. And when you've grown them, the secret is to cook them straight away -- get the pan boiling before you pick them! Then pick them, strip off the outside leaves and boil for EXACTLY 9 minutes & serve with butter & black pepper. Heaven. If it's worth growing anything at all, it's worth growing these. Good luck!
"it does best ... if you keep it in the greenhouse" Fascinating! How do you get on for pollinating them? "get the pan boiling before you pick them!" I have read that you should take the pan of boiling water to the veg patch and drop them straight in! I read an interesting thing the other day, which I will try this year, to put the cobs [keep their "skin leaves" on] in a bucket of water immediately they are picked, for 30 minutes, then put on the barbecue for 25 minutes. The "skin leaves" will be all blackened etc. but once you peel that off there will be juicy cooked cobs inside.
I've had some problems, I think with pollination (unfilled cobs) even growing outside so was going to try hand-pollination this year. Has anyone experience of this? It's definitely worth persuing as fresh corn is very special :-)
I have read to tap the plants (like you do with Tomatoes) to dislodge the pollen. My cultivation notes, such as they, are on my blog: http://kgarden.wordpress.com/tips/growing-sweetcorn/
As Kristen says, all you need to do to pollinate, is tap the plant, making sure a pollen carrier drops in the junction between leaf and stem.
"making sure a pollen carrier drops in the junction between leaf and stem" Bit more to it than I thought then? :(
I'm amazed at everybody talking sweetcorn already. It feels too early. I generally reckon to put these straight in the same bed after overwintering onions come out.
"I'm amazed at everybody talking sweetcorn already. It feels too early" My view is that Sweetcorn needs a longer season than the UK weather provides (although modern, shorter-season, F1 varieties help). So I want to lengthen the season by starting off in the greenhouse.
I have literally just planted some seeds in a seed tray with a cover on top for sweetcorn and tumbling tomatoes, my first time growing veg! So very useful info regarding the sweetcorn thanks
I think you'll be ok planting now, I'm about to put mine in any day. As for pollination, do as Dai says, give them a little shake and they will pollinate themselves. I blunder about in the greenhouse and knock things over, that works fine.
"I have literally just planted some seeds in a seed tray" Sweetcorn don;t like to have their roots disturbed - if your seed trays are not the "individual pot" type I recommend that you transplant them as soon as the root has started growing (this will be before you see any leaf showing) and I would suggest using Peat pots, or pots you make yourself from Newspaper, so that you can plant them out whole without disturbing the roots. If you have the "individual pot" type seed trays I would still be a bit anxious that they won't be big enough to contain the plant before it is ready to plant out. You want to make the season as long as possible, to ensure the cobs have time to grow and firm up, and as such I wouldn't rush to plant them out until it warms up - 1st June is my target planting out date.
