Grow Your Own Magazine

(Thanks to the other thread!) I didn't realise they might be tricky to germinate - so they were just put in rootrainers, watered and left. 10 out of 15 thru no problems, had a firkle around and 2 were trying to grow aussie-style, so pointed them in the right direction! So 12 out of 15 growing okay.

But one of them has a 'problem' on its leaf - it looks to me like I might have overwatered it? What sort of conditions do sweetcorn like between now and being planted out (whenever that is?), I've put them in the g/h - can they stay there overnight? Thanks guys.

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

I don't think they will need the greenhouse Manda. Mine are sat outdoors the moment they germinate and get about an inch tall. I water when they are dry - same as everything else. Oh, watch out for the slimies - they like sweetcorn grass

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Manda - I think it could be over-watering. Mine sometimes suffer like that too. It's not easy to get it right, even with root trainers. They should be ok - just let them dry out a bit.

Glad my sweetcorn looks the same as yours ( apart from the problem ) smallblueplanet.

Yeah, I thought it might be that, so why have I just gone and watered everything in the g/h, including the corn???!

Best place for them whilst in rootrainers CC, in the g/h or outside?

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

Well, mine are still in the greenhouse (in rootrainers) but they've yet to pop up.

When most have appeared I'll put them outside as long as it's still mild.

I wouldn't plant them yet, but they'll be ok outdoors if you can bring them back in as necessary. Keep them sheltered from the wind and off the ground if you can.

I'll keep them in the g/h then. Off the ground cos of 'slimies' as shirley puts it?!

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

As I do every year, I have only just planted my sweetcorn. They go into
15x15x20cm pots outside and stay there until the broad beans have finished. Once the beans have been cleared I dig over the ground adding a few hands full of bone meal as I do it. The sweetcorn is then planted into this bed and well watered. Done the same thing for the last few years and never had any problems.

Like all the books say, 'if you want sweetcorn at its best GYO'. You really can't beat it can you.

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It is the doom of man, that they forget.

Interesting thanks snuffer, do you mean one corn per pot, and about when are your broad beans finished then? Ours have a long way to got before they get beans!

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

The 'problem' leaf now seems okay and 11 of the 12 are growing well. There's one smaller one that suffered from overwatering and root rot, but it might catch up later?

How big can I let them get before they're planted out? I presume I'm waiting for 'frost-free' nights?

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

Hi Manda

I just planted some of mine out last weekend and they were the size yours are, I just put some slug stoppa (organic repellent) round them and they havent been nibbled yet.

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Cheers Chris

Its only a chilli if it burns your mouth

My corns been out for about 3 weeks now, have i just been lucky? their about 4" tall. I sowed 40, and they all came up!

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If at first you don't succeed, give up and destroy all evidence you ever tried.

Oh boy, total sweetcorn novice here. I only sowed my seeds this week in peat pots...

But thanks for the tip snuffer about the broad beans, I'll do that next year. I have waaaaaaaaaaay too many sweetcorn sown for the teenie broad bean patch

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

I have soaked mine sweetcorn for 2 days and them left them to sprout on wet kitchen towel - checked this morning and yey! most of them sprouted...guess what I'll be doing this evening after work...questions though, do I plant them with sprout downwards or? (never grown sweetcorn before)

Can anyone offer any advice here? I sowed my sweetcorn in peat pots almost 3 weeks ago and still no sign of them, so I had a bit of a rummage in one of the pots this morning and there are some roots starting to grow - not that big, but at least they're there. There was no sign of a shoot, but is this normal. Do you think the shoot will come now the roots are forming? (dohhhh, I know I sound real stupid asking this)

I think mine took a week to shoot up, but that was in a cold frame. I'm no expert, but i would assume if roots are starting to form then its only a matter of time? There's no stopping mine now the're up, so i wouldn't worry.

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If at first you don't succeed, give up and destroy all evidence you ever tried.

I sowed my first batch a bit too early and a fiddle in the pot revealed a root going down before any sign of green coming up. It sounds as though what has sprouted is your root, so yes, plant that down. Out of sheer nosiness what variety are you growing?

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I'd rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

http://hollandsroadparadise.blogspot.com
updated 14 May 2008

I'm growing T&M's Extra Tender & Sweet F1...got home last night, and did not have a problem figuring out which goes where, as root got all furry and the stalk sprouted as well. So all 16 have been potted up, and I will sow the rest of the packet at the end of May. So excited as I have never eaten freshly harvested corn :-)

as I have just posted, my corn shooted next day after root sprouted, but that was on the wet towel (don't know if this matters)

Hi fellow sufferers
Lots of interesting stuff about corn here. I am in Paisley(Scotland) and have them in G/H growing in loo tubes. I think the keep slightly on dry side is great advice. In some tubes i have two or even three plants. I am slightly tempted to try planting them out like this. If you look at the fields of corn in France very often plants are inches apart our even touching at the base. Anyone tried this our am I just being greedy?

Terryr

I have another sweetcorn question to add! I don't have much room to plant them, so was wondering what would be the minimum number of plants in order to get decent pollination? At the moment I have 9 plants and was figuring on a 3x3 block - do you think this is enough?

Hi busylizzie you will be alright with just 9 plants, you will usually get three or four cobs from each plant. Just a word of warning if you are going to increase your plants. Make sure they are the same variety as mixing two different corn will usually result in cross polination which will usually mean tough cobs with no sweetness.

Ian

Thanks gojiberry, they would be the same ones, I've got just enough seeds left to plant a few more after my toddler got hold of the packet to play with!

I think I will stick with the 9 plants for this year and see how we do.