[Briony]

Silly me I have planted my sweetcorn to early in the greenhouse and it has gone wild it is about 1 inch tall.  it is in peat pots to avoid root disturbance what can I do please as it is too early to plant out.  Do I risk it and cover them iat night with a cloche or frame, let them take pot luck and plant some more later on or what?

[DD.]

You are early, but at an inch tall, I wouldn't say it's gone wild!

I'd keep it where it is for the time being & keep your fingers crossed, it's way too early to put out, even with a cloche. (And it's still too small).

I'd be tempted to cover all bases and sow a few more in a couple of weeks, that's when I'll be doing mine.

[paintedlady]

whereabouts are you Briony?  If way down south, it shouldn't be too bad but if way up north then do as DD suggests and get ready to sow some more, just in case 

[Briony]

Not way down south but near london (50 miles) but I think I will go and buy more seed in case.  I can always swop the plants then if I am over sucessful

[Pompey Spud]

Hi.

I started chitting my seed 2 days ago & all the seed have sprouted when I looked at them this morning.

Potting them tonight me thinks with a view to plant out early May.

Is this a tad early for being right on the South coast?

PUP!

[paintedlady]

Sounds alright to me, but keep an eye out for the weather.  Last year we had a scorching (sun burning) hot weekend at the beginning of May, then a late frost near the end    It'll be worth keeping the fleece handy 

[Pompey Spud]

Thanks. Sounds good to me.

I'm going to plant them out in blocks of 9 with squashes round them without regurgitating previous threads.  :happy:

PUP!

[DD.]

I well remember the late frosts last year, so I'm holding back!

[Sharonx]

Does sweetcorn need chitting then? How is that done?

[Pompey Spud]

According to the Veg bible available here  :happy:

Place the seeds in a container ie Lunch box etc on damp kitchen towel with another damp layer on top. Place into the airing cupboard & in 2 days time...Taadaa.

Than pot on.

Cuts out the worry of sowing dead seed.

My question is. The long white shoot thats sprouted. Is that the root?

PUP!

[Sharonx]

Thanks for that, I would have just potted them.

So as we haven't established if this is the root, we need to know which way up to plant the said white sprout
Is it chit up to grow to the light or root down 

[Briony]

I did just pot mine I did not chit them (did'nt know you had to !) and had only 1 failure not bad eh!

[mumofstig]

from one of John's information pages (using the search engine there)

Sweetcorn
I’d started chitting some sweetcorn on Thursday and it had developed really well. In fact it had gone too far. When I chit sweetcorn, I just want to see a bit of the root popping out, maybe half an inch long. Already the root was nearly two inches long and the shoot was nearly an inch on some.

Out of 36 seeds, all but 3 had developed and I managed to break one more, so 32 went into 3" pots. The chittings are incredibly delicate and need very (I mean VERY) careful handling.

Hope this helps

[Sharonx]

Well thats established that then thanks!

Last year i brought our chooks some dried sweetcorn cobs from the petshop, they didn't like them so we chucked them on the compost heap on the plot. My son and nephew were wacking them with a stick and a little while later they sprouted up. My F-I-L planted them in our plot and his own and we watched with wonder as they grew. Unfortunatley they wern't any good for our use but the chooks loved them!

Going to try and do it properly this year

[DD.]

It was no doubt maize that you bought, which is much tougher and used as cattle feed. You don't have to chit the seed, but you can see which is the viable seed.