Sweetcorn

[Millymollymandy]

I won't answer that one because Camile who lives in Ireland is French and he might get upset!

[Cheezy]

Sshhh don't tell anyone but I think I'm going to have sweetcorn for the first time. Last year was useless, so I invested in a heated propagator and got it to sprout early, its now 4 to5 ft tall with several heads on each one and it's flowering. It's in my three sisters bead with pumpkin,yellow one ball courgette and cobra french beans. THe beans are flowering and actually growing up the sweetcorn, (last year It was all out of sync)

[Millymollymandy]

Yummy I have had two meals of sweetcorn but I had to pick all the cobs off as the ruddy wasps were eating them - followed by the Great and Blue Tits! The cobs aren't huge but at least they have been pollinated properly and there are kernels, unlike last year!

My 2nd crop are coming along nicely now and already bigger than the first crop so as long as this wierd wasp invasion doesn't get worse I should get some proper size cobs from these plants.

[Cheezy]

Here 3M , when do you know when to pick the corn?

[Millymollymandy]

It's quite hard to know - I thought it was when the tassels turn dark brown/black but I still had some of the smaller ones that weren't really quite ripe enough but we still ate them.

I tend to try to unpeel the green outer leaves of just one to have a peek inside but that of course leaves them a bit susceptible to insects etc getting in. I suppose I really ought to put a bit of masking tape over to seal it up again!

[Rod in Japan]

How many cobs do y'all get off one plant? And in your parts, do they recommend pulling off the bottom cob early?

Here one or two cobs are the norm, and the bottom cob is generally pulled off early and eaten as 'baby corn', so that the second cob grows, yea, unto a jaw-breakin' size. (My missus ignored my 'baby corn' and refused to cook it. Next year, chastisements will be put in place for this sort of behaviour.)

[Millymollymandy]

That's a good question. I haven't heard about picking off the first cob because isn't that the one that turns into the biggest one if you leave it?

When I had a really good year in 2006 I had about 2-3 big cobs and up to 5 med to small ones. This year I have had about 2 med ones and 2-3 small ones, but I've hopes for the next batch which are doing better.

[Mrs Moustoir]

Sounds like yours is doing OK MMM. My sweetcorn is looking a bit pathetic this year. I think it feels inadequate against the monster maize that surrounds our plot. Mine is about 4 feet tall with the farmer's at least 6 feet. These plants were my third sowing with the others ending up as snacks for the mice.

Don't fancy pulling off the bottom cobs as this will half my crop as I've only one or two measly cobs per plant and it looks a bit anaemic too. Does anyone feed theirs?

Oh er - chastisements RiJ...

[Millymollymandy]

I have the same prob Mrs Moustoir - my veg patch is right next door to a field which is maize this year and yes it dwarfs my sweetcorn and is only just starting to flower!

Mind you we can console ourselves that ours are natural and organic and don't have special things added to the seed to get it growing nor do we spray with lord knows what like the farmers.

I'm always a bit worried that they are spraying so close to my veg patch (it was a cow/hay field when we were first here) but the tractors seem to have pretty good spray attachments that just spray directly downwards and nothing seems to come near my garden, thankfully - although when they are muck spreading in the winter I wouldn't mind a bit coming over the fence!

[Peggy Sue]

I doubt they even grow the same varieties as we do...and we don't load the nitrogen like they probably do either!

[JR]

Had first cob last night. It was fantastic, shame we wont get many this year.

I will make it my mission to germinate lots of seeds next year a dedicate a large area to grow lots. We will see.

[Peggy Sue]

That was my plan this year- lots of sweetcorn. We set 2 packets and have a sum total of 5 plants

Next year we will have to nurture them in little modules with TLC...along with everything else means I should have built a big greenhouse not a mini cold frame!!

[Millymollymandy]

Just ate the last of mine last night!

I do find with a lot of things that I've sown early indoors (April), they just don't germinate easily, even in a propagator, yet sow them again later on (May/June) outdoors or in a cold frame and up they pop in no time - yet it is probably colder out there than in the heated propagator! Maybe it is the lack of light? I just don't know.

[Peggy Sue]

Oh dear, I had planted mine out directly so Had assumes I SHOULD have started them in a propogator.....no easy solution

[Cheezy]

Mine have anywhere from 3 to 5 cobs. Interestingly I planted some at home in a bed (spare from the lottie) One died, the other two are tiny and have one cob. At the lottie I followed a gardeners world advice, I made a mound of manure and planted the plants directly into it. It's part of my 3 sisters bed so I have some beans in with them, they've done really well considering the weather.

But they got the best of the early sun we had as I starded them off in Feb in a heated prop.