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Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: plotstoeat on April 24, 2019, 10:51:27
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Just curious to know if any members in Scotland have success in growing Sweetcorn. I seem to have started mine here in Durham too early. Nearly ready for planting.
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We did grow sweetcorn in Aberdeenshire, (which has very sharp winters most years) but only in a polytunnel. Outside, unless an exceptional year, the season was too short and it never ripened.
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I seem to have started mine here in Durham too early. Nearly ready for planting.
How I determined my sowing dates many years ago was to establish my latest frost date (which in my area is Week 21 or last week in May) and sow four weeks before this date and do not disturb the growing process i.e. I sow in a container that will sustain the plant/s until planting out time.
As an alternative (as I do) is I germinate them in a cell tray (till I just see the tap root) then I plant them up into a 3"/4" pot until planting out time!
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Look for one of the very early ones and sow them in inch tall plastic beer containers so they can grow down., time it so they are no more than 3 weeks in the pot , if left longer when you transplant them they can sulkand this really delays them for two/three precious growing weeks, They hate to be transplanted so you have to fool them.
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Thanks for the advice Jeannine. Too late for this year: used root trainers and they are well up now. Daren't plant them yet as frost forecast.
"inch tall plastic beer containers" thats not much beer! Only buy beer beer in bottles.
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That should have been 7 inch containers ,they hold a litre. If they were mine I would transplant them into 1 gall containers and hope you can fool them. it can work I have done it, worth a chance, just don't keep them in small ones Good Luck..what variety did you use I may be able to give you some info which was always sadly lacking in UK packets when it came to corn.
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That should have been 7 inch containers ,they hold a litre. If they were mine I would transplant them into 1 gall containers and hope you can fool them. it can work I have done it, worth a chance, just don't keep them in small ones Good Luck..what variety did you use I may be able to give you some info which was always sadly lacking in UK packets when it came to corn.
Sorry for the delay replying: I have been to Scotland on holiday. I used T&M Early Xtra Sweet F1. I have planted them out now as they had strong roots growing out of the trainers. I don't have room to block plant them so I am going to have to rely on hand polination.
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Good Luck the extra sweets are a bit more cold sensitive but I shall be cheer leading for you. Here in my part of Canada we have a much bigger choice to choose from and they have some very early ones. I'll take a look and let you know. There are quite a few folks over there that grew my corn.. I can always send some over of you remind me in time. There is a company local to me that only sells varieties for cool growing areas.Look them up.. West Coast seeds, then read through theweb site, there is tons of info on there and there will be a lot about corn XX Jeannine
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The gardeners at Beechgrove (Aberdeen) grow sweetcorn in polytunnels so it is possible under shelter. They do need plenty of watering to grow well and make juicy cobs.
Beware having seed sent from Canada. There are rules and controls to protect the UK's biodiversity including ornamentals and private and commercial food crops.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/importing-plants-fruit-vegetables-or-plant-material-to-the-uk
There are also strict rules about importing seeds and plant material into Canada - for very good reason.
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/plants/seeds/imports/abcs-of-importation/eng/1347740952226/1347741389113
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Cold conditions will tend to restrict growth but if you can provide a bit of protection you have the advantage of amazing day length. With up to 22 hours daylight and then just a couple of hours twilight I'd be astonished if you could not produce a good crop. Obviously you need to be very careful about late frosts but otherwise try to create a bit of a helpful microclimate. Some carefully placed wind breaks could up the average season temperature by a couple of degrees.
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Cold conditions will tend to restrict growth but if you can provide a bit of protection you have the advantage of amazing day length. With up to 22 hours daylight and then just a couple of hours twilight I'd be astonished if you could not produce a good crop. Obviously you need to be very careful about late frosts but otherwise try to create a bit of a helpful microclimate. Some carefully placed wind breaks could up the average season temperature by a couple of degrees.
My thoughts exactly. Of the four essentials heat, water, nutrition and light; it is possible to improve the first three but the fourth is not so easy, although I have placed a huge mirror in the GH!
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just a quickie this was this morning here on the sunshine coast sweetcorn growing strong