Saving Sweetcorn seed

[OliveOil]

I was sent some sweetcorn seed and plan to put it at the other end of my plot away from my main sweetcorn so that i can save some seed.... but how does one go about it?

[OliveOil]

[Garjan]

Hi OliveOil
As far as I know, corn is selfpollinating. The variety will probably keep.
To save seeds, just let a cob get fully mature. Take it of and let it dry. The dried kernels are the seeds for next year.
This is what I do for five years now and my crops are okay.
Garjan

[manicscousers]

thanks, garjan, I'll do that this year  ;D

[Garjan]

Hi MS
Obviously I was stating the obvious.  ::)
But then: what was OO asking exactly? There must be some subtlety I didn't get.

[cambourne7]

would this work for variatys like mini-pop?

and how do you get the corn off the cob?

[Jeannine]

Hi you might need to find out what type it is, eg open pollinated or hybrid is a start.Then with the corn which falls into three different categories and some of them will cross pollinate.If for example you have suppersweet variety they need to grow at least 25 feet from corns that are not supersweets ot have difference of about 15 days maturation time. If you grow a supersweet and your neighbour grows one of the other two types and you don't have the separation the two will cross pollinate and both of your sweetcorn will be starchy and taste poor when you try to cook it that year.Then the seeds will not be any use if you save them anyway.This is why it is a good idea to know what your neighbour is growing.

I have a good heritage  booklet on saving seeds that gives details and pictures of bagging the plant to keep the seed pure, if you would like a copy please pm me and I will photocopy it for you.

There is bound to be a good site explaining in more details about distances betwen corn.If you tap in growing supersweet corn I am pretty sure something will come up.

To save corn seeds you dry the whole cob and when dry the seeds come off quite easy.

Hope this helps XX Jeannie

[OliveOil]

tHANKS guys sounds straight forward...

Jeannie - I still have your seeds to send I havent forgotten!

[redimp]

You should also grow 200 plants and select cobs for seed randomly as with any less, over time, the strain becomes weak and does not perform so well.  F1's will not breed true and most sweetcorn is F1.

[manicscousers]

Hi MS
Obviously I was stating the obvious.  ::)
But then: what was OO asking exactly? There must be some subtlety I didn't get.

never saved sweetcorn seed before  :)

[OliveOil]

Hi MS
Obviously I was stating the obvious.  ::)
But then: what was OO asking exactly? There must be some subtlety I didn't get.

never saved sweetcorn seed before  :)

Stating the obvious is good! I've never saved sweetcorn before. But I got some saved seed off someone here and i thought i would save a cob when it grows so wanted to know how to do it!