Topic: Buying Sweetcorn plants

[1066]

Morning!
Well I have a right miserable result from my sowings of Swift sweetcorn! Sowed 32 and only 8 have germinated. A couple of days ago I emptied the rest of the packet onto damp kitchen paper to try and chit them, and so far - zero.
So in desparation I'm thinking of buying some. So I'm trying to find a good deal, but also wonder at how good they will be. Has anyone bought sweetcorn plants before and if so where and were they successful?

A quick serch showed Marshalls selling 16 Swift for £6. Do you reckon it's worth a try or am I better off not bothering

Grump, humph, moan, groan ......

1066  :)

[saddad]

Try plant sales like ours and Betty's... we usually shift @ 200 plants at the Start of June... :-X

[Baccy Man]

Sound expensive. If buying online then plants by post would be about 10p per plant cheaper at £3.25 for 12 plugs, they have lark, swift and minipop.
Locally sweetcorn only sells for £0.65 per tray or 3 trays for £1.50 there are 6 modules per tray but 2 kernels sown in each so there can be anything from 6 to 12 plants per tray. Do you have a market/farmers market near you which sells veg plants? if so then it could work out considerably cheaper than buying online.

Sweetcorn plug plants will be ready to plant immediately you don't want to leave them in trays too long or they will become potbound & will sulk for weeks when you do plant them out.

[Robert_Brenchley]

They may have been too cold. I germinate mine under the hot water tank.

[Squash64]

I grew some for my son but he only had room for 12 so I've got 12 spare Applause plants - you are very welcome to them if we can think of a way of getting them to you.  

[Jeannine]

Untreated corn seeds need a minimum temp of  65 % to germinate and if they are supersweets(corn is shrivelled) the temps need to be higher still, try upping the temp on the seeds you tried to chit.Seedlife is 2 years. XX Jeannine

[1066]

thanks all for your replies and suggestions.  :)
I don't usually have problems germinating seeds, I don't have a propagator, or a hot water tank so rely on sunny south facing window cills (with radiators underneath). But maybe the heat and light levels this year have been poorer than usual  :-\ The temps have been good for the last few days, although a sea-mist has now just rolled in!!

the only farmers market I know of locally only sell herbs, and a few other bits and the 1 plant sale I know of was last week  :-X

And squash what a kind offer! I think I'll see what else I can rustle up. But thank you   :)

BaccyMan - the link for plants by post was great - until I read the following: -
"Due to demand, with the exception of Chilli Plants and a few
Vegetable items, we are not currently accepting vegetable
plant orders for immediate delivery. " I'll give them a call just to check anyway

Jeannine - the seeds were bought this year.....

Maybe I should exercise some patience.....
Thanks again
1066

[coznbob]

Really struggling to get mine germinate too... :'(

Am going to give them a bit longer and see if that does the trick

Will keep a look out to see if I see any being sold locally.

[cleo]

Locally sweetcorn only sells for £0.65 per tray or 3 trays for £1.50 there are 6 modules per tray but 2 kernels sown in each so there can be anything from 6 to 12 plants per tray.

That sounds pretty reasonable-I sell on a basis of 5p per plant- 24 seeds sown in large punnet selling for £1-and if I get 100% germination so much the better for the customer,any less than 20 and I don`t offer them (very rare)

[1066]

not really pleased to hear I'm the only one, but it does mean I shouldn't give up up hope yet!
And thanks for looking out for me  :D

[Dadnlad]

On Friday we sowed a packet of 'Incredible' [DT Browns 80seeds was expecting 40] after an hours soak into 1/2 tray compost on sill and looks like 70+ are off n running

With temperatures going back up, and light levels improving all the time, my money would be on sowing again

[1066]

well I have sowed the chitted ones in root trainers (12 of them), so we'll see what happens next ..... I'm trying to exercise patience .......  :)

1066  :)

[caroline7758]

I set some sweetcorn seeds to chit on Monday. They were on damp kitchen roll, in an ice cream tub with the lid on and put on a sunny windowsill. They had chitted by yesterday, so maybe yours just need a bit longer.

[1066]

Progress report -
The chitted sweetcorn in the root trainers are all coming up  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D

And I binned the ones that were in loo rolls and doing nothing  :-X


So memo to self for next year - chit and root trainers. And don't even consider using loo rolls (never had much joy with them!)   :D

So who knows I might actually get some homegrown sweetcorn this year  :-\
1066