Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: mrbones on August 04, 2007, 12:44:42
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Hi all
Quick question, does anybody know why my healthy looking plants have gone seed rather than fruiting. This is the first time I've tried growing sweetcorn so not too sure where I've gone wrong....... help!
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Are you sure? it could be the male tassel at the top you see, the sweetcorn below is about to form, take a look.
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thanks, for coming back i'll go and check
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Which led me to this -
http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/hort/g06390.htm
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I'm worried that mine are producing ears at the top but have only reached about 4 ft high.
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Hi , the corn is struggling big time in most areas, it needs heat to develop on time and this year it has simply not had enough in ,most locations. Plants are tasselling while still not fully grown. Some areas will get cobs but many will not. Corn is iffy at the best of times in some UK areas but without the usual weather it really doesn't stand a lot of chance. XX Jeannine
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Does that mean you're back, Jeannine?
These are Kelvedon Wonder - only 3 feet.
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Yes Tim . I posted a message XX PS Like the new look
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looking forward to having sweetcorn,tassles are growing at top many others in allotments have got cobs nearly ready.
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The plants are a lot shorter this year but the corns seem to be forming OK. ;D ;D ;D
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mine seem to be enjoying the extra water! they are very lush with lots of cobs forming i counted 5 on one plant :D who knows if we get a summer they might even ripen 8)
mrbones i am sure you have noticed the cobs by now. give the top flower a little shake to help it along
marg
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I give my bits a shake today Marge. :P ;D ;D ;D
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I give my bits a shake today Marge. :P ;D ;D ;D
;D ;D ;D ;D
marg
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Mine are up around 6/7 foot and looking good. I put a few barrow loads of compost around them this morning as I heard(and found) that earthing them up a bit improves the yield
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Marg - 5 cobs to a plant? Variety please??
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I think I've done well if I get three!!!
::)
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One or two for me top whack. ;D ;D ;D
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I've been eating my corn for about a week now. 2-3 cobs per plant. Really yummy.
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Just a little point here, actually you are better off to get only 2 or max three cobs, pollination is better and the cobs are usually complete. More usuually means smaller cobs or ones that are not completely pollinated. I prefer the double one and get huge cobs full to the end. This is one thing when more is not better. XX Jeannine
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Hi All,
Thanks to the people who answered my question about the sweetcorn, as i have never grown s/c before the tassels throw me a bit . I thought the plants had gone to seed. But then reading everybody Else's experiences i have gained much knowledge, so thanks once again .
mrbones Essex
:D
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My sweetcorns (Northern Extra Sweet) are only about 2 foot high. ::)
Mrbones, I hope you'll have a good crop and enjoy your first home-grown corns. :)
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re my sweetcorn with 5 cobs looked again there is 6 the seed is kings F1 tasty gold. yes you are right jeannine it is better to have 1 good one then loads which come to nothing and i expect this to happen here. i tried to take a pic but the battery,s had gone flat :'( it is because it,s branched out at the base
i am lucky to get i what with pests eating them so i am trying a big bottle over the cob just as it starts to ripen. i,ll let you know what happens
marg
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We had our first cobs last night. Absolute rubbish.
The tassels on the cobs were turning brown, so we thought the corns would be set.
I think the problem we had was that when the male pollen bearing parts of the plant were growing, they were wet through, so no powdery pollen to fertisilse the cobs.
In our book, another casualty of this dreadful year!!
valmarg
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Still hopeful
(http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w217/Dr-Steph/Toms020.jpg)
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Those look great, cleo!
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Infinitely better than mine, which gave up after being inundated.
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managed to get a picy and i do know most of them will come to nothing also my bottle protection experiment marg
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I would be interested to know which animals the the bottle protection is supposed to stop. You would need to allow the cobs to get pollinated before you put them on.
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Marg, you could get mildew with this method, the cobs need air and there is a lot of condensation there.Thought I had better share that with you. XX Jeannine
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yes jeannine those ones did have condensation i started putting holes in later ones and need to do those (experiments often have teething troubles)
real food yes i only put them on the swollen cobs as for 3 years i have had something opening the end and eating them when they ripen, netting them makes no difference so i rule out birds. as my plot is in a rural area near woods and a nature reserve who knows
i havn,t covered them all so i will be able to compare
marg
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I only put them on the swollen cobs as for 3 years i have had something opening the end and eating them when they ripen,
marg
I think your culprits could be american grey tree rats, or even Roland ratty rats!!
valmarg
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I've just been down to my lottie to water the stuff in the gh and my sweetcorn has flowers and cobs!!! You have no idea how pleased I am with this because I was about to pull the lot up and burn them!
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you took the words off my keyboard, susie-had exactly the same experience this morning on my sweetcorn- yippee!
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I've grown swetcorn for the 1st time this year - only 9 plants in my garden.
I am averaging 3 healthy looking cobs per plant (Incredible F1)
Not bad for the north east, although they do sit in a sunny SW
location and I started them off quite early in heat.
Debs ;D
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moost of ours were like that a couple of weeks ago but now full cobs forming yum yum
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I would still have the bottles off Marg until all the tassles on anyone cob are brown... or you may only have partial pollination...
:-\
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mmm yes it,s a matter of timing isn,t it i havn,t put bottles on many . one was already looking picked at. i,v app 30 plants there so hopfullt one way or another i,ll get one or two eatable ones
marg
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hi,
my cobs were getting eaten by rats or volves or something so i did as you with bottles last year and it was a disaster...i thought they had all been pollinated first but when i removed the bottles they had barely any kernels. hope yours fare better!
i'll be awaiting the results...
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I think the first cobs on mine are ready to pick and the second lot on each stalk are not far behind. The second row were planted a few weeks later and are taller and already forming good cobs with silks etc. Now the ones at the allotment are useless! I bought them from the garden centre as small plants and hoped they'd catch up quickly. Not a chance! They are still only about a foot high - if that! :(
Thank goodness the ones in the garden have done okay. Fingers crossed the cobs are good when I pick them - I'll keep you posted! ;D
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mmm i took everyones advise and removed a lot of the bottles. i,v made holes in all of them so the ones i have left on are dryer the trick is catching them just before they are ripe enough to get munched by anon creature. time will tell it,s me v them war
marg
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Squirrels had the back end of mine last year. :'( ;D ;D ;D
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What stage had the corn cobs reached when they started to be eaten?
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Hi Gang,
Growing sweetcorn (full sized and mini) and popcorn this year.
The mini sweetcorn is only about a foot high and is not really doing anything.
The full sized popcorn and sweetcorn are doing ok. There all over 2 foot high most have the bits at the top that look like wheat ( i am sure there is a proper name but no idea ). I have now started to see silky bits growing out on some of them :-)
Last year when i harvested the corn there was some small white worms in one of the cobs i tested so i chucked the lot. Decided to try again this year and see if i can get sweetcorn whats ok.
Cambourne7
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My minipop has shot up to 7' in this last fortnight and is starting to produce...
The odd corns, bloody butcher and Aztec black are about three foot and have pollen and silks..
The Ovation (maincrop) has just started the male bits...
;D
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i have mine planted around my pumpkins so it will lift some pumpkin leaves while i can still get there and see what i can see ;D
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Mine look fine even though the weather has been bad this year. The maize in the fields round us looks fine too. We normally pinch a few cobs of maize - actually quite edible !
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Hate to say this, Marg, but the bottles will be the perfect nest for Earwigs - cornkillers!
This is how we're doing up here........
I rather like the contrast of red & white tassles & silks?
There are 9 Squashes in between the blocks.
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Grew fab sweetcorn last year - this year is a disaster... they are only about a foot and a half high and tasselling.
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my corn are looking fab so fingers crossed just two questions,
i believe i have to wait for the tassles on the ears to go brown before picking is this correct?
and second what is the safest way to pick them to avoid damaging the rest of the plant?
thanks
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thats right debster - wait till the tassles are dark brown then you can peel them open, stick your fingernail into a kernel and if the juice is creamy then it's ready! We've had several of ours over the last week and its delicious!
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I aim to grow about 30 sweetcorn but had so many seedlings fail this year (for some reason the birds went for them and I admit I dropped a cloche on a few others >:(), I've just planted another eight seedlings in as good a block as I can in the spare space in the bed.
This was probably a pointless act given the normal time to ripening, but they seem to be growing twice as fast as the others did at the same stage so just need a very mild Autumn (and Winter and Spring?) :D
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but tim i am a desperate woman mmm earwigs or anon nibblers :-\
barnowl off topic but courgetts doing well
marg
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Glad to hear it, Marg :)
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sneeked up and checked and some of my sweetcorn has got one and some two cobs growing. These are still quite thin so is it just a matter of watering to help them bulk up?
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Had a check on mine today, I had to stake some up as it was really windy, most have two cobs but a few have three or four. ;D ;D ;D
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i am going to have to steak a few of mine as they have blown over last night.
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Checked my Northern Extra Sweet yesterday. Most plants are forming two cobs per plant but there was a plant with four cobs! ;D