What is the best sweetcorn to grow?

What do others think are the best sweetcorn seeds? I live in the South of England, and normally, I grow my own plants from seed but, for many reasons, had to buy a tray of unlabelled plants from a garden centre this year and I'm not very pleased with the result - the plants are very short and look very unhealthy. It does look as though they will crop but I'll have to wait and see.

I know it's difficult to define "the best" so when I say best, I'm looking for a combination, I suppose, of good germination rate, and size and taste of cob. Every other year I've been very pleased with what I've grown but, this year, couldn't remember which seeds I used to buy - I know that sounds daft, but it's true!

 

They don't like being transplanted, I think that's the more likely issue with size of your plants - were they sold in modules or decent, deep (or rotable/peat) pots?

I think garden centres should be shot selling plants that don't transplant :( Mind you, even Unwins sell Sweetcorn plants.

I grow mine in home-made newspaper pots, I use a tall can as the "former" so that the plant has a deep root run, but only about 2.5" diameter. I try to plant out as soon as any root appears through the paper, but got caught out sowing too early this year - nonetheless they have been fine.

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

I grew some in the greenhouse, the remainder of that batch outside (i.e. very early) and a second batch outside later on. The early batch, outside, are very short. The later batch a reasonable height, and the greenhouse ones a bit taller

Code:

Site Sown Planted Height
---------- ------ ------ ------
Greenhouse 01-Apr 01-May 190cm
Outdoors 1 01-Apr 01-May 80cm
Outdoors 2 09-May 31-May 150cm

 

My impression is that sweetcorn is one plant that has undergone lots of real improvements in recent years,

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profiles0505/sweetcorn.asp

so it's worth seeking out the very latest "tendersweet" varieties.

 

Thanks Kristen and Manteur,

I've, also, read that sweetcorn doesn't like being transplanted but I've always transplanted mine without any problem before now.

I'm wondering whether plants I bought were a stir-fry or dwarf variety - label on the tray merely said "Sweetcorn" - it didn't say what they were and I just assumed that they would be normal sweetcorn.

I bought the seeds this year from the little allotment shop and I have no idea as to the quality of them - they were in date but the conditions in which the seed packets are stored leave something to be desired.

I'm not so much bothered about what happened this year (though thanks for your thoughts, and I don't mean to be rude) as finding, for next year. what is, generally, considered to be the best variety, from many aspects.

The seed suppliers have such a wide range that it baffles the mind! It must be down to personal choice in the end, I suppose.

 

The Mini-pop variety (is that the same as Stir Fry?) is an old fashion typed cultivar and grow very tall.

There are numerous new varieties called "super-sweet" or "xtra-tender", or whatever catch phrase the marketing folk have concocted for them.

Some are designed that the sugar turns to starch less quickly - so that they can be kept, after picking, presumably - but personally I don't compromise on that, I cook them immediately [and I do mean immediately, the pan is on the hob boiling before I go out to the veg patch to pick them] they are picked. If I want to store and use later I might as well get them at the supermarket!

The newer varieties are designed to be more suitable for the UK climate. I suspect that means "dwarf", so that less time is spent growing before they reach maturity and start producing cobs.

The seed of such varieties is generally much more prone to rotting, so is coated with a fungiide - keep out of reach of chdlren,a dn wash your hands afterwards. I germinate on damp kitchen paper and plant as soon as they sprout, so I get 90%+ germination rate.

Varieties should not be mixed - cross-pollination is a problem for the super sweet varieties - that will include your neighbours I'm afraid, as they are wind polinated. (That has nothing to do with the stunted growth you have though)

As I indicated earlier, my early sowing resulted in less tall plants (they still produced cobs though), so I would recommend successional planting (although you need about 9 plants minimum, planted in a block, to get good polination) so that at least some of them are after the initial cool of late Spring. [Mini-pop doesn't need polination, so grow in rows / whatever.]

I have grown Swift and the family have liked thema lot. Also Kelvedon Glory which was not as higly thought of here - "somewhat better than shop bought" was the concensus.

I believe that Lark is a popular variety.

 

yeah, the sort of not too tall, dwarf, varieties doing better over here, had my plants only about150 cm tal and the crop was amazing,
some of the cobs were not full, but i guess its done to pollination and the bad soil i have
It was Excalibur


and i have the minipop, looking very nice, 2 m tall with 4 cobs!
Great fun and they tend to stay tender for long, just wont be that sweet, which might be a god thing anyway

 

I haven't grown sweetcorn for a few years but when I did, I don't think Kelvedon Glory F1 ever let me down. Reliable as clockwork, good flavour.

One year, I grew those baby (i.e. mini) sweetcorn plants. Mine reached well over 2m tall and the little cobs had no flavour. I never repeated the exercise...

 

"and i have the minipop, looking very nice, 2 m tall with 4 cobs!
Great fun and they tend to stay tender for long, just wont be that sweet, which might be a god thing anyway"

I take the male bits off the top to stop them pollinating. Need picking when they are 4" long, or shorter.

"the little cobs had no flavour."

They don't!! but the kids seem to love them, and the ones I have grown are much nicer than the Supermarket ones - according to said kids! (same issue with sugar turning to starch unless they are cooked immediately, I expect)