Allotments 4 All

I am looking to try a different sweetcorn next year and have narrowed down to two varieties but am undecided.  I live near Middlesborough in the northeast so want something reliable to produce the goods. My only attempt to grow sweetcorn has not been overly productive so any opinions on these two appreciated:

the variety Northern Extra Sweet Hybrid F1 favours the cold:
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/245/1.html

The variety Extra Tender & Sweet Hybrid F1   is the one I would prefer, but am not sure if it would harvest where I live:
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/seeds1/product/964/1.html

I grew 'Extra Tender & Sweet' here in Derby this year, very impressed with the results. 2-3 cobs per plant, fully filled very sweet cobs that I ate at the allotment raw! I also grew 'Ovation', but they did not do half as well.

I grew them much closer than I had before, 32 plants in an 8'x4' bed, sown 3 weeks before planting out. I used 1/2 plastic drink bottles around the plant bases for protection which I left on for the whole season. This helps deter the slimies and gives a bit of wind protection until they are really growing strongly. This is the variety I am growing again next year! ;D

I grew Northern Extra Sweet this year, they did really well, and I plan to grow them again next year. Despite the awful summer, they cropped reasonably early - I forget the date, but Kite, which I'm told is a bit late for the UK, came on a couple of weeks afterwards with no problems at all, and ripened in plenty of time before the end of what we euphemistically call 'summer'.

Our Ovation, across the path were fine Deb!
:-X

We've grown Swift for the past few years.  Can't fault it on crop or taste.  Would thoroughly recommend it.

valmarg

Phew (wipes forehead) I just bought some Swift seeds. Swore I would never grow sweetcorn again cos I've always had lousy results but guess what? Yep great cobs this year!

KT, I live a few miles north of Hartlepool right on the coast and never had any problems with growing any sweatcorn.
I would have thought your biggest problem would be smoke.

Quote from: davyw1 on November 03, 2008, 08:04:28
KT, I live a few miles north of Hartlepool right on the coast and never had any problems with growing any sweatcorn.
I would have thought your biggest problem would be smoke.

I live at Guisborough so am lucky enough to be far away from the smoke.    Have you grown any of the 2 varieties I have listed?  Or what varieties have you had success (with & cobs per plant)?

Hi ktlawson. I had great success from "Sweet Corn F1 Kelvedon Glory" from Kings Seed of Colchester in Essex (see my gallery) beautiful firm cobs, sweet and they freeze well. Regards TEYman

Quote from: ktlawson on November 03, 2008, 09:43:28

Quote from: davyw1 on November 03, 2008, 08:04:28
KT, I live a few miles north of Hartlepool right on the coast and never had any problems with growing any sweatcorn.
I would have thought your biggest problem would be smoke.

I live at Guisborough so am lucky enough to be far away from the smoke.    Have you grown any of the 2 varieties I have listed?  Or what varieties have you had success (with & cobs per plant)?

I grown Swift and Supersweet quite successfully two cobs to a stalk. Going to try Sugar max this year.

Have grown Lark for the last two years on a cold clay exposed site on Chech/Staffs border - Good crop & lovely flavour.

I've grown Extra Tender and Sweet - thought it was pretty good.  Now moving almost completely to Extra Tender varieties (Swift, Kite and TZ6157 - catchy name!)

I have grown swift and Lark for several years in Glasgow, with great results every year.

The only tip I would recommend re sweetcorn is regarding germination.  We used to sow the seed about half an inch into the compost.

I can't remember which gardener it was, but they recommended putting the seed on the top of the compost, and very lightly covering with compost.

Whereas previously we had had very poor germination, since following the above advice we have had pretty much 100% germination rate.

Just a suggestion that we have found works.

valmarg

Yes, I recommend sowing the seed on top of the compost on my web page. It seems to be a foolproof method especially for the "tendersweet" varieties of sweetcorn, where the seed skin is thinner than that of standard varieties. Using this method, I usually get 100% success.

Quote from: valmarg on November 03, 2008, 21:16:58
The only tip I would recommend re sweetcorn is regarding germination.  We used to sow the seed about half an inch into the compost.

I can't remember which gardener it was, but they recommended putting the seed on the top of the compost, and very lightly covering with compost.

Whereas previously we had had very poor germination, since following the above advice we have had pretty much 100% germination rate.

Just a suggestion that we have found works.

valmarg

Thanks for this - I always have a few germination problems so will try this tip for 2009. I grow Lark and Swift as well, find that they always grow well and produce 2 cobs per plant .......once I have gotten them to germinate.

The other thing is to give them a bit of warmth when germinating. I can germinate other types in a cold frame, but supersweets need to be on the windowsill in a warm room.