Yummy fresh sweetcorn that is easy to grow! (Sweetcorn)

Member Name: herbie__53

Product:	Sweetcorn
Date:	06/05/09 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Absolutely delicious, simple to look after and grow

Disadvantages: You need room to grow them!

Sweetcorn is a very easy vegetable to grow. You can start sowing indoors on a windowsill from mid march, and outdoors from May.

To sew indoors, I recommend using peat pots which you can transplant straight into the garden as this way you do not cause root disturbance. I would recommend planting one seed per large peat pot as the roots can get very widespread very quickly and need the space to grow. Place the pots on a sunny windowsill and in a few days you will start to see the seedlings. In May you can transplant them outside to the garden, either into the ground or into a deep pot or tub.

To sew outdoors, plant two seeds per station as you will need to pull out the weaker one and let the stronger one develop on. Plant in a sunny site, but try to avoid areas with strong wind and the seedlings will get shredded!

The packets of seed say to leave 30cm or more between plants, but I have planted them in a grid of 15cm gaps with no problems. Try not to plant them in a single row, plant them in a grid if you can as this aids with pollination.

Make sure you give the plants plenty of water as sweetcorn are thirsty! You do not need to add support to the plants as they have a strong enough stem to support themselves. They grow very quickly and get to over a metre tall. You will see that they will start to grow the cobs at the junctions between the stem and the leaves, and at the very top of the plant will be the arms that have the pollen on them.

To aid pollination, you can break off these arms and rub them over the fine hairs that will appear at the end of the cobs. The idea of planting in a grid is that when the wind shakes the pollen off the arms at the top and floats down, it has more chance of falling on a cob than if they were planted in a row.

When the hairs at the end of the cob turn brown and shrivelled the cob will be ready to eat. However it is also a good idea to pull away some of the casing of the cob just to check that it is ready, as I have pulled off a cob thinking it was ready but there was just the core of the cob and no corn!!

Once all the corn has been picked, you can let the plant die off. I had a hard time pulling mine out of the ground last year as the root system is very strong and the stalks of the plant are tough! I think perhaps it is better to wait for the plant to dry up and die completely before attempting removal....!

Overall I find this is one of the easiest plants to grow, and you get delicious fresh cobs that a not a patch on the days-old stuff you get from the supermarket.

Summary: Give it a try, you'll never look back!