Topic: Sweet Corn

[gardenqueen]

Growing this for the first time this year. How can I tell when the cobs are ready. There are two cobs to a plant and at this stage one is larger than the other although neither are that big! The tassles are a creamy brown colour if that is any help!

[chriscross1966]

Are the silks (the string out of the top of the cobs) "crispy" or are they still "soft".... if crispy then it's worth harvesting one (the most crispy) and finding out what it's like..... a decent frost will kill them so I'd think about harvesting any that are getting there.... if you want to be sure, peel back the sheathing leaves from a cob that's well developed and push a fingernail into one of the kernels until it bursts... if the fluid is watery then it's not ripe yet, if it's the consistency of single cream then its back on and if thicker than that then it's overripe....

chrisc

[gardenqueen]

The "silks" are soft. I have heard that a frost is forecast Thursday night so will try your other tip tomorrow to see what the kernels are like. Thankyou chriscross.

[chriscross1966]

The "silks" are soft. I have heard that a frost is forecast Thursday night so will try your other tip tomorrow to see what the kernels are like. Thankyou chriscross.

It's only just going to manage to frost according to my local weather.... I'm going to wrap my maize up in a couple of layers of fleece for the night and hope...... it needs a while yet....

chrisc

[lewic]

I'm having the same issues!

Most of my tassells are still green, soft and perky, and I pulled off one of the fatter cobs and it was still white inside and obviously not ripe.

A couple of them had brownish limp soft tassells, these were very tasty though probably could have done with ripening a bit more as the bobbles were still quite small.

I think a pet badger on a lead might be the best way of testing the ripeness! My neighbours who planted theirs earlier have had all of theirs trashed, and mine is still there [or was two days ago..]