What happened to my sweetcorn????

[annppayne]

I am interested in your mention of a three sisters bed, but I have not tried it yet as I am concerned that if I plant the sweetcorn fairly closely, then runner beans and then squashes all in one small area, how do I "get in" to pick the runner beans without treading on and destroying the plants ?

[annppayne]

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's always been my worry. If you plant in a narrow bed, then you can reach in, but you'll still be puloing the corn about. the original method involved plants which were allowed to go to maturity before being cropped, with the dried beans being used.

[Jeannine]

I haven't done this for a while  but when I did I stuck to the plan that involved patches rather than rows.I am not sure which folks are doing now.

I found with the patches there was lots to harvest  but i didn't like it for green beans,  mostly I used it for beans that I would dry.

I had my patches sort of in rows with quite a bit of space between and if you planted each veggie at the appropriate time it all came together very well.

The corn went first, then after the squash were matured I pulled them and the beans and removed the sorn stalks etc.

XX Jeannine

[valmarg]

Does anyone have the problem/?help we have with sparrows.

Once the tassels start to show, and the pollen starts to form, the sparrows love to eat the pollen.  Their landing on the tops of the corns shakes the pollen onto the tassels, and we usually get a brilliant set rate.

valmarg

[Sally A]

Were the 25% pollinated ones from lower down the plant?  If they are the tillers at ground level that's a satisfactory result, just knife off the kernels and use them as loose sweetcorn rather than cobs.

As for when are they ripe??? Nothing is better than a good feel and a grope (ooh-err missus 8)), but as a guideline, tassels turn brown (and these then get munched by earwigs etc, so not 100% reliable), and the cob (This is the interesting bit guys  :) , sticks out from the main stem in about the 2 o'clock position.

Laydeeeees ;D - remember a good grope and fumble at the 2 o'clock position is the right time to pick sweetcorn  8)