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My partner wants me to grow a few sweetcorn plants.  I'm not convinced as it means I'll have to dig another separate bed for them.  We only need a couple of plants as it's only us that eat the cobs.  This place has given me so many ideas already, so I thought I'd ask you knowledgeable folks some questions.  My garden is south facing by the way.

How deep/wide does the bed need to be?  How many cobs do you get per plant?  Should I start them off indoors, and when?  Any other tips would be gratefully received!

Grow sweetcorn in blocks, so they pollinate ok, otherwise you end up with patchy cobs! I've grown as few as 9 in a tub and got good pollination, so depends on your available area.

I start mine off in roottrainers about late April/May. Best tip I was ever given was to just push the seeds into the top of the soil, not to cover them.  I got 100% germination doing this, will do again this year. ;D

We got a 1-2 cobs per plant.

I start mine off indoors in March, then move them to the mini-greenhouse as soon as we get some decent mild weather in April. I plant them out in June, but this year I may do it a bit earlier, under cloches. When planting out, it pays to bury the bottom couple of inches of the stem, as this gives the plant a bit of extra stability.

you can plant them in your main crop spud bed in a row once there about 4 inches high.

I plant mine in pots and then plant out end May/early june. 1-2 cobs per plant off Kelvedon Glory. I grow 50-100 plants and freeze them.

Derek :)

Winter squashes will grow very well underneath sweetcorn,I think they benefit each other

yep its a good companion you just have to be careful that your squash or pumpkin dont squash your sweetcorn :-)

Two cobs max on mine last year, you can fit them in anywhere into the rotation and are good companion plants. ;D ;D ;D

i got an average of 4 cobs on 20 swift plants last year.

Dont need to dig, just plant em in when they are about 8-12 inches tall and they will just grow!  must admit they were the easiest things to grow last year for me!

Thanks for starting this thread Laney, we're hoping to grow some sweetcorn too so it's handy to hear everyone else's tips.  I'm a bit disappointed to only be getting around 4 cobs per plant, but I suppose i'll be happy if I get anything this year lol!  Good luck with yours, look forward to hearing how it's going x

6 to 7 per plant if you can protect them, ours were in the poly  ;D

How many cobs?-one or two usually from most varieties-one tip -when you see those claw like roots on the surface then earth up a few inches-it does make a difference

What variety did you use Scousers to get 6 or 7 :o mine only produced 1 or 2 :( and grew to about six foot. ;D ;D ;D

Very pleased to see that it's an easy one.
I might have a chance then...

How do you feed?  Are they a hungry crop?

Hiya, we grew Royalty and Tuxedo, ..we got 10 plants, 1 grew none, 3 got 7, the rest got 5 or 6 and a couple of small ones we used in stir fries , don't know which was which, I'm really bad at labelling  ;D

Mine were 4 weeks late getting transplanted. Only got 3-4cobs from a total of 24 plants. Was not a happy bunny :(

oh, yes, forgot, they were all grown in the polytunnel and reached well over 8 feet tall, and I started them early  :)

You gotta shake 'em, KT....shake 'em........spread the pollen. You should average 3/4 cobs per plant.
Did you read Derek's bit......50 to 100 plants.Ye G*od's.

To be honest, on my best year, after losses, my 100 was only 94 plants. I did have two fresh sweetcorn for breakfast every day at work for 4 weeks though, and a freezer full to boot.

Derek :)