Topic: Sweetcorn prep

[Spireite]

This is my first year on my allotment...so...
I've dug a 4X5 ft patch for my seedlings to go into....
is there any advice re: amount of manure/fertilisers/compost/watering to prep my soil for sweetcorn??

This area hasn't been dug for about 3 years....I removed LOTS of bindweed today with the odd volunteer potato!!

[squeezyjohn]

My advice would be that they are quite hungry and also surprisingly thirsty plants.  If you haven't manured earlier then it wouldn't hurt to dig in a fair bit before they go in as long as it's well rotted stuff.

Alternatively you could just bung them in and top dress with something like chicken manure pellets or growmore.  Once the corn gets established it is very much worth mulching to stop the inevitable weeds popping up and competing for water - the mulch will also preserve moisture from evaporation too.  Corn doesn't provide any ground cover itself so weeds are normally a problem.

Alternatively you could interplant with pumpkins and train them between the rows of corn to cover the ground.  However you need to give each plant plenty of room.

[Spireite]

Thanks Squeezyjohn, I don't have a great amount of time so the whole bung it in method is probably what will happen...I am growing pumpkins this year so that IS a good tip