Vegmonkey and the Mrs.

Last year, our sweetcorn didn’t do very well at all. The first and second lots of seedlings got destroyed by slugs and snails. The third lot was molly-coddled so much it grew…just not very much. We had one cob, that was about 1 inch long. It tasted very sweet.

This year i planted enough for 15 plants. 4 were good enough to be potted on and are now growing in the bed well, as can be seen above. They should be planted in a block (if that is possible with 4 plants!) so that the fertilisation can happen by wind dispersal. I think i planted them too close, but there is plenty of room for their roots to roam, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Lots is growing at the mo, particularly the sweetcorn…i love this time of year!

I tried to plant some sweetcorn at the beginning of April, but the seedlings got destroyed by evil, horrid slugs. Instead of giving up i decided to plant a little more, and put it out the way of the slugs. And…hey presto! I transplanted them into the legumes bed as that’s the only one that has any space.

The plants have to be planted in a block, like above as they are wind pollinating, and wouldn’t produce any corn if they were planted in rows. Ideally the spacing should be 30-40cm, but i haven’t got the space for that, so we’ll see how they do.

The plants should be a bit bigger than this now, but i’m hoping that when the sun comes out in Cheltenham next week (cough, splutter) the plants will shoot up, and we’ll have some cobs around late August.

Quite rewarding seeing them grow either way, and a lesson learned for next year.