Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Digeroo on April 13, 2012, 08:25:17
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Do you think it is too early?
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End of April in pots in the heated propagator for planting out mid May for me.
But you plant outside under cloches don't you?
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My diary says .......6th of May for sweetcorn ;)
Duke
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I chit on sunny windowsill and then put out under bottle cloches. I have normally gone on holiday second week of May and had them showing in the bottles by then. It is a bit of a gamble. But I got 250 early bird in a packet from Moles so I have a few spares. I just cannot remember when I started them.
It was very warm end of April last year, so I won. It was the later batches that failed.
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I don't normally start until the second week in May, following Jeannine's rule of only 3 weeks between sowing and planting out for the best results :)
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,40653.msg406402.html#msg406402
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I'll be putting the Swift in this weekend Into propagators) adn the Mirai probably two weeks after that, they go in with the first of the beans (Gigandas adn BOrlottis to get time in pots in GH) and Speedie to get green beans before the maincrop Cobras plus the greenhouse cucurbits, then the second batch goes in with the bulk of the shelling beans, the Cobras adn the outdoor cucurbits
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My 1st batch of sweetcorn are up about an inch in my cold greenhouse. I drape a bit of plastic over them should there be a danger of excessive cold
Cheers, Tony.
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When I have enough toilet roll middles....about a fortnights time...
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I put 22 Applause to chit on damp tissue yesterday. When they show signs of germinating they will be potted up and transferred to my GH. I usually plant out mid-May under fleece till the night temperatures remain around or above 10C.
Tricia
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Mine have just come through today in a cold greenhouse,a lot of things just seem to be germinating very quickly this year or is it just me ;D
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Seems some people have started already. Well here goes.
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End of April for me... :)
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2 weeks before the last predicted Frost date so it will probably be the 2nd week in May for me ?? ---- South Yorkshire
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yep,same ere....loo rolls it is tween mid and end of may...lost too many to previous late frosty cold snaps.
Gazza
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Mine will have to wait until end of May when I get back from hols this year and then hope for some good warm weather- they were rubbish last year.
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I'll be starting mine next month.
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Started mine 21st of March
Some of them are 3 / 4 inches high
::)
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3 weeks before you plan to transplant into the garden ..no more..otherwise it will sulk when you do it, it hates to be in pots so there is nothing to gain by starting early no matter what you plant in, it will stop for a while when you transplant unless the plants don't realise it is happening. It should be 100% unrestricted growth from seeding, direct seeding is best but in cool areas where this is not possible 3 inch pots will fool it b ut only for maximum 3 weeks.
I have tried pretty much everything over the 40 odd years I have grown it and it is very stubborn.
XX Jeannine
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Hi Jeannine - what are your thoughts on using loo rolls? I have collected a load and will be doing mine next weekish or thereabouts in loo rolls. I dont have 3" pots so want to use the loo rolls. I did some broadies and they are looking good now - been planted out for a few weeks now..
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I sowed my first batch of sweetcorn 3 days ago.
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I've used the bigger sized roottrainers for sweetcorn for several years now. They get a really good root system going, and no disturbance when you plant them out, so they just get going straightaway, no setbacks.
I do use looroll tubes for parsnip seeds though, and I find they work really well, as I used to have a big problem in getting the seed to germinate out doors. Now I start them off indoors and plant them out as soon as they have a couple of leaves.
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gavinjconway.. my honest answer is. I have never done it but I have pretty much tried everything over the years and my gut feeling says no..the roots will not just grow down and I don't think they would like it as the roots would be constricted very quickly. I have tried them in narrower pots and they didn't like it even though they were as tall as the usual 3 inch ones.. I like my corn to be filled right through to the tip and find if allowed to grow unrestricted I get that.
If pots are a problem, I would try plastic disposable beer containers. I am using them these days for all my transplants as they are only a fraction of what pots would be , they are designed to hold 18 fluid ounces, almost a pint, and they are quite tall. My tomatoes do very well in them as they hold more than the three inch pots .I get them in a huge bag from the North American equivalent of Macro, I get more than 200 for less than about 8 quid. I am sure they will have the same over there. The only down size is you have to put a drainage hole in them,, easy with sharp pointed scissors though. Oh and I am using some for the third year so although disposable they don't need to be.
I am sorry not to be able to give you an answer.
XX Jeannine
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I've had great success with loo roll holders. What I do is put some soil in the bottom of a plasterers bucket and then place the loo rolls on top and fill them there, this means that if the roots make it to the bottom before planting out they're not restricted by the bottom of a pot or whatever. Tried and tested with peas, sweetcorn, dwarf french beans and parsnips. Will be sowing the sweetcorn today.
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I will still have mine out once they have chitted. Then between the bottle cloches will be several inches of straw. Hopefully any frost will simly go over the top.
I do not think I am aware of plastic beer containers here, they tend to be aluminium and get recycled. I find that the 500 ml yogurt pots being tapering are easier to get plants out of than straight sided. If not left out in the frost they also will go several years.
I might have a bit of an experiment an try one batch outside in bottle cloches against a batch in pots and see which win.
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I used the looroll tube last year and it worked well... using it again this year... this weekend for the Swifts,
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I have used loo rolls before, but I've got loads of "pot noodle" containers left by the previous tenant on my plot, so might try those this year.
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I've made a load of newspaper pots, the same size as a tin of soup- I think that's what I used two years ago and they all grew well, until Mr. Ratty got there before me!
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I have had a thought, I might line the yogurt pots with newspaper so they can then be slipped straight into the ground will very little disturbance.
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I also sow my sweetcorn mid may to plant out first week of June. I use the second hand rootrainers I purchased from eBay a few years ago which are still going strong. I sow as per Jeannine's technique of just pressing the corn into the compost and get great germination that way, they then get planted with plastic bottle cloches, pop bottles cut into a tube which stay on all season; initially they give them a bit of protection from cold and wind, and also keeps slugs/ snails away while they are establishing. Works for me!
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I have never grown sweet corn b4.
Yesterday i saw a small pot with what looks like 8/10 seedlings in at the garden centre, so thought i might give it a try.
I understand they want planting in a block but do they need supports/sticks?
And anything else i might need to know!
;D ;D
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My feeling is don't touch those you saw yesterday at a garden centre As their roots might be tangled and you will need to separate them to plant, and sweetcorn don't like their roots disturbed
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A seconding to that brown thumb :D.... Avoid multi-planted sweetcorn strips/blocks... if they're not in individual modules I wouldn't touch them. You've got time, if you don't have loo rolls then any small pot is OK, or 12-15 cell module trays, start them last week of April under a propagator lid on a windowsill (if you have the discipline then they can go in an airing cupboard at night).... sweetcorn are pretty easy to grow from seed...
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Woops.. already bought them! :-[
Shall i give it a go at separating them today whilst they still small?
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We have tried both methods and both were successful,we purchased said trays in our 1st season 2 years ago and after untangling the root mass(not easy) we managed to block plant 30 x 8 inch plants of which a few didnt take or grew poorly....but overal the shop brought ones were Ok..!!!!!!
Last year we Loo rolled 40 seeds last week of April and block grew them 3 sisters style and it worked great
so same again this year.
40 x Golden Bantam Sweetcorn
within the block we grow 10 summer ball F1 hand sized pumpkins that grow randomly along the floor
to cut weed growth and taste lovey roasted by the way.
Finally the block is surrounded by Safari Dwarf French beans that were very productive last term.
Anyway thats our 3 sisters version.
Although I will finish with a Q.....would butternut squash work within the sweetcorn block or would this variety rely too heavily on direct sunlight to grow best..??...We will be growing them anyway in a cloch but wondered if they would work under foliage in the corn block.
GazNjude
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I would separate them asap. Ideally you need at least 12 in a block 3x4 for good pollination. I do them in block 3x6.
My first batch a few have begun to germinate. It is supposed to be very cold tonight so I will put them out tomorrow.
I grew butternut amongst my corn three years ago and was amazed to find four lovely squashes nestling amongst the corn which I had known nothing about. They were the biggest and best ones I had ever grown. The plants were on the west side of the corn and had trailed into the corn. Interestingly the ones outside the corn block were much smaller.
I have not been able to repeat it because of contamination manure, so I am hoping to get back to the three sisters again this year.
I think if I was going to put 40 seeds in loo rolls I would do them in two or three batches/blocks to extend the cropping period.
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That's sort of what I'm doing to extend the period too... THis early batch of Swift will go in a polytunnel, the next batch (in about two weeks will be outside (next to the PT), then there will be a batch of Mirai next week (outside, in a fleece tunnel, other plot) and a second batch of Mirai (three weeks till sowing, outside next t other other Mirai.... Could do with some mechanical means of shcuking sweetcorn.....
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Found one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Norpro-18-10-Stainless-Steel-Corn-Cutter-NEW-/320823802318?pt=UK_Babay_Baby_Feeding_Cups_Dishes_Cutlery_LE&hash=item4ab296b9ce (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Norpro-18-10-Stainless-Steel-Corn-Cutter-NEW-/320823802318?pt=UK_Babay_Baby_Feeding_Cups_Dishes_Cutlery_LE&hash=item4ab296b9ce) sawa video on youtube of someone using one of these (or similar) and a power drill... takes about 10 seconds per ear of corn and most of that was drilling into the corn core to hold and spin the ear or removing the drill from the core... it took about 2 seconds per ear to actually remove the kernels...
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Thats encouraging Digeroo,the westerly sun does give our block position lots of late evening sunshine so I think we,ll plant some butters on that half and small pumps on tuther,Im afraid our plot postion is in "windy alley" so we tend to block build the 40 together as the density seems to hold the grouping well from the horrid easterlys we get... :-\
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I,ve never had much luck with the germination of sweetcorn so this year i got 2 packs of an f1 cannot remember the name at the mo, and guess what every one has come up ::) so i now have 60plus corn that have just poked there heads up ;) think my plot neighbours may be getting given some sweetcorn plants a bit later on ;D
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A friend of mine planted hers in the bath in her garden a few weeks ago and the sweetcorn is already 4inches high am itching to get going....
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I have separated the ones in the pot. They came appart very easily, altho did have a very long root.
Just got wait and see now; whether I damaged any .. dont think I did.. was very careful!
If they are all ok, I have 16. So would I plant these 4 x 4?
And how far appart? And I have also put in 4 butternut squash seed today, if I can get a couple of these to take again (hubby had accident today; tipped up b.squash and killed them) How would you plant 2 in amongst the sweetcorns?
Hoping one of you clever people can kinda draw me a picture so I can get it in my head... lol !!!
;D :o ;D
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Ours are up, in the cold poly and will go out in a fortnight, under cover and under bottle cloches inside :)
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4x4 is a bot of a small block... you don't need the monster fields I plant but I'd feel a lot happier with 8 or 10 more plants in that block....
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We dont have that much space, only a small patch here. how far appart should they be then?
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Depending on variety somewhere around 8" (dwarf plants, only likely to get one cob per) to 14" (biggish plants, expecting two cobs) apart on a staggered grid (Layout an equilateral triangle at the distance adn expand from there.....)
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just looked the variety is called "conquest"
Thanx
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I sowed mine yesterday in loo rolls, they are in the propagator now. So...hopefully we will get the really cold weather out of the way before they need planting out ::)
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I have separated the ones in the pot. They came appart very easily, altho did have a very long root.
Just got wait and see now; whether I damaged any .. dont think I did.. was very careful!
If they are all ok, I have 16. So would I plant these 4 x 4?
And how far appart? And I have also put in 4 butternut squash seed today, if I can get a couple of these to take again (hubby had accident today; tipped up b.squash and killed them) How would you plant 2 in amongst the sweetcorns?
Hoping one of you clever people can kinda draw me a picture so I can get it in my head... lol !!!
;D :o ;D
Not sure if this addresses the question you are asking but I have used the Three Sisters approach devised by native Americans for growing beans, sweetcorn and courgettes/ squash. It works very well and the separate plant species enhance the values of the other two (nitrogen, weed suppression etc, and the convex-topped mounds make sure water is concentrated where it is needed. The site below has a diagram showing layout, distances etc.
"Corn provides a natural pole for bean vines to climb. Beans fix nitrogen on their roots, improving the overall fertility of the plot by providing nitrogen to the following years corn. Bean vines also help stabilize the corn plants, making them less vulnerable to blowing over in the wind. Shallow-rooted squash vines become a living mulch, shading emerging weeds and preventing soil moisture from evaporating, thereby improving the overall crops chances of survival in dry years. Spiny squash plants also help discourage predators from approaching the corn and beans. The large amount of crop residue from this planting combination can be incorporated back into the soil at the end of the season, to build up the organic matter and improve its structure."
http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html
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Thank for all the relies about loo rolls... I'll do them like tat this year as my first try at sweetcorn..
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gavinjconway.. my honest answer is. I have never done it but I have pretty much tried everything over the years and my gut feeling says no..the roots will not just grow down and I don't think they would like it as the roots would be constricted very quickly. I have tried them in narrower pots and they didn't like it even though they were as tall as the usual 3 inch ones.. I like my corn to be filled right through to the tip and find if allowed to grow unrestricted I get that.
If pots are a problem, I would try plastic disposable beer containers. I am using them these days for all my transplants as they are only a fraction of what pots would be , they are designed to hold 18 fluid ounces, almost a pint, and they are quite tall. My tomatoes do very well in them as they hold more than the three inch pots .I get them in a huge bag from the North American equivalent of Macro, I get more than 200 for less than about 8 quid. I am sure they will have the same over there. The only down size is you have to put a drainage hole in them,, easy with sharp pointed scissors though. Oh and I am using some for the third year so although disposable they don't need to be.
I am sorry not to be able to give you an answer.
XX Jeannine
Hi Jeannine I've got a question on cross pollination, I'm planning on growing Swift and minipop this year do you know if they cross pollinate? If so I may have to have a rethink.
Many thanks
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I will be planting mine out soon, 1 foot apart in blocks. :)
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Not a good idea to plant swift and minipop together, unless you remove the male pollen tassels on the minipop plants before they open.
In any case you are supposed to pick the minipop before the female silks open.
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Real food is right. if you are growing the mini pop toi have baby cobs then it is not a problem as you would not be allowing them to pollinate anyway.
XX Jeannine
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Thanks both, I thought I could grow them but wasn't sure, as long as there harvested as mini corn which I was planning on.