My tassles are brown!

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Kleftiwallah

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My tassles are brown!
« on: August 18, 2018, 14:14 »
Do all the cobs on a single plant (large or small) ripen at the same time?

Can I remove the top cobs (largest) and leave thge lowwr ones to get  bigger?

Cheers.   Tony.
I may be growing OLD, but I refuse to grow UP !

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mumofstig

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Re: My tassles are brown!
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2018, 14:20 »
Check the ripeness with a fingernail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjtM0wGGSXA

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JayG

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Re: My tassles are brown!
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2018, 15:05 »
The lower cobs sometimes suffer from poor or even no pollination. That's partly because the stupid tassels start shedding pollen before all the silks have properly developed, which is why staggering your sowing and planting out can be helpful (although in this country you'd only get away with it in a summer like this one, which of course you can't count on in advance! ::))

Same fingernail test for ripeness though even if the cob is poorly filled.
Sow your seeds, plant your plants. What's the difference? A couple of weeks or more when answering possible queries!

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Goosegirl

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Re: My tassles are brown!
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2018, 11:44 »
The one thing I find with growing mine in the greenhouse is that all the cobs get fully pollinated. When the tassels develop pollen I tap the main stem with a cane to release it onto the silks. Some of the pollen falls onto the leaves below but as I generally tap them until no more is released, this eventually gets onto the silks that develop a bit later. I can't grow them outside because it gets very windy here and the pollen just gets blown away.
I work very hard so don't expect me to think as well.

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Kleftiwallah

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Re: My tassles are brown!
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2018, 12:02 »

Many thanks for those instructive replies. 

How does the cob know (each tassle is connected to a kernal) that the kernals at the top are left unpollinated and do not fill out.  Why aren't there unpollinated kernals spaced out along the cob?

Questions, questions, questions!

Of to help the semsahib reposition 'stuff' clear junk out the freezers to find sufficient space for this years crop.  We're down to our last 2 from last year.

Cheers,  Tony.


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lettice

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Re: My tassles are brown!
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2018, 12:22 »
Been an amazing year so far for Sweetcorn and mine have matured a few weeks or more earlier.
Normally get three cobs on almost all of them and a few with four.
This year they are all producing four cobs with just some later grown ones that have so far just had the normal three cobs and looks like they also will all be a good size.

I always tap each plant as I pass by each day to spread the pollen.
But planting them in blocks together is the trick as that then spreads the pollen over the crop and not over other parts of the garden.
Not ever had wind problems with sweetcorn, but they seem happy in a gentle breeze. They are in a sunny position and semi- sheltered.
I have always built up the soil around their 'triffid' feet roots, once they are about five feet, so they do not bend over.

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Kleftiwallah

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Re: My tassles are brown!
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2018, 14:16 »

Three or four cobs per plant! ? !

Please tell me what variety you planted!  (I planted Lank F1)  I usually have one main cob and sometimes a cob which could be described as 'baby sweetcorn'.  Apart from a few latecomers, all the cobs are off the plants and generously fill a 'mushroom tray' before being laid lovingly in the freezer drawer.  The stems are bashed with my trusty lump hammer and cut to lengths in the compost bin with a sprinkling of soil so the bugs can get to work.

Feels good.  Cheers,  Tony.
Cheers,  Tony.

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lettice

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Re: My tassles are brown!
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2018, 18:22 »
Please tell me what variety you planted!

Golden Bantam.
Grown that variety successfully for many years.

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Kleftiwallah

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Re: My tassles are brown!
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2018, 19:08 »

Many thanks for that lettice.

Cheers,  Tony.

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AnneB

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Re: My tassles are brown!
« Reply #9 on: August 19, 2018, 22:12 »
You will be OK with Golden Bantam in the south of the UK but in the north it has not been a good variety for me.  Best results have been with Lark and this year Zuccherino from Seeds of Italy has been great, but an exceptional year.



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