[SnooziSuzi]

mine are really short this year too; I put it down to the lack of sunshine

[Kristen]

Do you remember when you sowed / planted out SnooziSuzi?

[Riala]

I have them tassley bits on two of my 12 sweetcorn plants... I am guessing that is good? The plants are roughly 1.5-2ft high.

[SnooziSuzi]

Do you remember when you sowed / planted out SnooziSuzi?

From memory I sowed them in April (15th ish?) and planted out after the last frosts in May (about 16th).

I do have some cobs with tassels on but not on all plants and not all plants are pollenating just now so hopefully this will mean a prolonged cropping season (fingers crossed)

[scabs]

Mine too are disappointing, mainly due to planting out late. Someone else has suggested liquid feed, but can I also mulch with fresh manure?

[Kristen]

I've been out and measured mine:

Site	Sown	Planted	Height
Greenhouse	01-Apr	01-May	190cm
Outdoors 1	01-Apr	01-May	80cm
Outdoors 2	09-May	31-May	150cm

so I think it may be worth delaying outdoor planting until the weather is getting warmer.

[SnooziSuzi]

Has anyone tried planting earlier and using fleece to keep off the cold?

[Kristen]

I had fleece over my early outdoor ones. I think we had a couple of light frosts, which obviously didn't kill the plants but I don't know if they benefited beyond that.

I was watching a YouTube about a guy competing for the Liverpool Allotment "Champion", or somesuch.  He has some lightweight timber frames covered with clear plastic (probably poly-tunnel plastic).  I don't know if they would withstand gales, but the things he had inside them were really advanced.  Maybe something like that might be worthwhile for early sweetcorn?

(I'll dig out a link to the YouTube if you are interested)

[JayG]

After 2 years of sweetcorn growth which could only be described as embarrassing, this year I have Swift growing about 5 ft high which have an average of 3 female tassels per plant on the main stem, and signs of male and female tassels on those that have side stems.
The difference? I think that using paper pots rather than cardboard tubes or peat pots lets the roots grow out quicker and without disturbance, the good weather in June (remember?!) got them off to a flying start, but above all realising that my sandy soil loses nutrients so quickly and that sweetcorn are such hungry plants that compost, dried chicken poo, Growmore, in fact anything you can throw at them or on them helps get them going at the rate they need to to produce well in our short summers.