Allotment Stuff > The Basics
More queries about Sweetcorn
Tee Gee:
This is how I used to grow them, and as I recall I usually harvested a good crop.
http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Content/S/Sweetcorn/Sweet%20Corn.htm
One thing I never did was grow more than one variety at a time to ensure no cross pollination.
Click on pics to enlarge!
Deb P:
I'm also a 'surface sower' into tall rootrainers three weeks before the last frost so 2nd week of May usually, plant out 2nd week June into a protected raised bed and they romp away, always get established more quickly than early bird sowers, although last year they matured much later than before so presumably weather related.
Digeroo:
I put them in a 12 module tray,though I do two trays at a time and try to have 20 good plants in each batch. And when once they start to move upwards I put them out. Each plant is then covered in a plastic bottle and this is not removed until they are well out of the top of the bottle.
I did three succession sowings of lark and one of earlybird. Early bird was very poor this year. But lark produced for weeks. I also have to put a plastic bottle over eat cob to stop the rats eating them. I managed to stuff some netting up the bottom end so they could not push the bottles off.
Vinlander:
If you want to start sweetcorn early then it's worth getting seedlings into the ground early - you need mulching and drainage (raised beds) to be in place now - both are valuable to ensure warmer soil.
It helps most years, but generally means planting before the last frosts, so they need a cloche over them (say a clear 2L pop bottle with the bottom cut out - & take the cap off when it gets too hot).
Unfortunately this timing is also before the mice have found spring food sources - and that means seedlings (with still-tasty seeds) need to be planted in a mouse-proof growing container that ideally joins up with the cloche above (another 2L bottle, or its lower half - any colour - with lots of holes in the sides and bottom - ideally this would be what you sowed them in).
That's a lot of bottles - the 2L cloches are useful all year round for other crops, but the holey pots use up a lot of storage in winter.
It is possible to do the same thing with half-litre bottles. The smaller underground halves work just as well, but the smaller size doesn't work so well for the upper halves - they need to be replaced with the larger version as soon as the mice are sated or a) the plants will get stuck below the necks (it's worth using the type with wider necks) and b) they are much more likely to overheat in May and cook the plant.
In London this method means chitting in March indoors and sowing chits in holey pots before the root branches - then I can risk a few plants 3 or 4 weeks early, and the rest are usually OK 2 weeks early (from mid-April, with about the same risk as planting in May without protection).
The early start means more attrition at every stage (especially in bad springs), so I need 50% more seeds - it will be no surprise that I save my own OPs &/or get F1 versions online, not from the 15p-a-seed merchants.
Cheers.
Tiny Clanger:
Thanks Everybody. I've grown Lark before but it's always been ready early. Looks like I sow plant out too early. Will delay a bit fir this time. I grow one variety at the top of plot and one at the bottom (150 feet). Can't do much about the bloke next door 60 feet away. Just hope there's not too much wind :wave:
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