I find sweetcorn a git to grow, when really i think it should be quite easy! Last year we had enough for one small bite while ripping the plants out of the ground to compost. It went in very late as the first sowing was munched to hell by slugs.
This year i had a similar problem. 85% of the new seed i bought didn’t germinate, 5% was eaten by beasties, so the four plants i had left went in the ground. These has grown nicely, and very tall. They are planted in the cucurbit bed with the courgettes and squashes, as the sweetcorn is tall, and the others grow low down. This is similar to the three sisters method of growing, but i don’t like to overload the beds too much.
The silky threads that grow out of the end of each corn have started to shrivel and die off, which indicates that they are ready to harvest, but upon further inspection inside, the kernels are not fully developed yet. I was hoping to poke them to find out if the juice inside the kernels was milky (under ripe) or creamy (ripe). I think i’ll leave it another week before checking again…we really do need a little sun to help them along.
Upon harvesting, we will have 6 cobs from 4 plants, which i don’t think is bad going. Next year, i’m going to make it my personal mission to plant out at least 50 plants. I think the propogators might need to be totally devoted to sweetcorn to keep them covered.
Tags: growing sweetcorn in a small garden, harvest sweetcorn
August 20th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I don’t grow corn for logistical reasons (you couldn’t bit many plants on my small balcony), but we’ve had locally grown corn twice now and I don’t remember it ever being as sweet and good as it is this year.
I hope you enjoy your harvest to the max!
August 20th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
We used to grow corn and we always tried to plant 40 - 50 plants, but I put in transplants from the nursery, not from seed. The trouble was they all seemed to ripen at the same time and both years it was while we were on vacation! Our neighbors enjoyed the harvest and we did all the work!
August 20th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I tried this year to grow them, and had an early success of 12 plants! I then hardened them off, and left them outside in pots, staked them, and they all gradually rotted at the base…2nd year of failure, so I may try in a few years time when I’ve got the rest of the plot down to a fine art! cat x
August 20th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I got 2 plants because the BunBuns and chickens munched the rest of the seeds. Still not sure if they’ll do anything. I put some sweetcorn ‘plugs’ but they seem a bit…lacklustre and tiny. Ah well…
August 21st, 2008 at 7:45 am
I’ve always found sweetcorn very easy to grow… until this year. The plants have never looked terribly happy, and growth has been much slower than usual. Cobs smaller, too. Some plants didn’t even develop any.
It MUST be the weather, because I’ve done everything else exactly the same as I always do. Sweetcorn needs sunshine to ripen, and we’ve just not had any for a month.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Ours have been good so far, got about 10 6ft plants, the only thing thats a pain is knowing when to pick them. I know you have to let the fluff go dark brown, but I cant see how you can tell if they’re ready without mutilating the outside and letting the beasties in.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Nancy - Thanks i will! You should have a go on the balcony, it would look great from a distance!
Sheila - that’s not good, apparently you can freeze them, after removing the corn….
Cat/Lucy - they really do seem to be tempremental…lets’ just keep ‘plugging’ at it (pardon the pun!)
Soilman - Very true about the sun!
Al - ello…i have exactly the same problem, i think the best thing to do is make sure the fluff is dead, almost black before venturing inside. I poked around in one yesterday, and it was nowhere near ready…it has since become home to a family of woodlouse!