Growing sweetcorn

little bess

I tried growing sweetcorn from seed a couple of years ago, but the plants didn't get very big, maybe 3-4 foot, and the corns when they grew were only half- ripe.

I don't know whether to try again this year , has anyone any experience of growing sweetcorn ? Any tips? Too late now to grow from seed but I'd buy the baby plants from the garden centre.

I'm thinking it wasn't warm enough for the last ones really ..but if anyone thinks otherwise let me know :-)

Stoner

when we planted them years back we put em in the green house and they produced very well.

The Sweeper

Plant in a group, as opposed to in a row - so if you're planting out, say, 16 seedlings, put them in a 4 x 4 square as opposed to a long row.

Get your hands on some charcoal and mix it through the soil - sweetcorn with charcoal through the soil will produce more, smaller cobs - so instead a couple or large cobs on the plant, you'll get four or five small ones.

They need good sunlight and rich soil - other than that, the fact that your last efforts were a little on the shortarsed side would suggest they hadn't enough sun and warmth - did they just get rained out of it last time around?

little bess

Hi there, thanks for the replies,

I planted in a square block last time, didn't help much really
To tell the truth it's in my head now that the weather was too bad so don't know if i'll try again, I don't have a lot of room so don't want to waste it !
Maybe I'll just try four of them and see what happens ..

Minesajackdaniels - yeh , was really bad summer , but the last two have been anyway haven't they ?