[Sue32]

I saw this on a web site
'   Sweet corn are ideal for under-cropping (growing other plants between them) because their foliage lets lots of light through. Examples of vegetables which will do well with sweet corn are dwarf French beans, radish, lettuce - in fact most small vegetables ....'

I you are under planting (sweetcorn or anything)  - do you have to alter the plant spacings - and if so how much?

[DD.]

I assume they are talking about quite mature plants as they state:

their foliage lets lots of light through.

I've grown sweetcorn over a few years now and I and the weeds that don't grow because of the lack of light have found this to be to the contrary.

[Swing Swang]

Under planting sweetcorn doesn't work too well for me and I've given up with any '3 sisters' method of planting as I find that crops are reduced. What I do do is to plant my squashes on the end of the sweetcorn patch so that they can 'ramble through'. This allows we to give a larger area to sdquash than I'd otherwise be able to spare on my tiny patch and works quite well.

I can't see why something faxt growing like lettuce/CCA/radish or possibly a fast growing herb (leaf corriander) shouldn't work when the plandt are young though.

SS

[Sue32]

Thanks -  on the web site they suggest 18 inches apart for the sweetcorn, didn't know if that was teh normal setting (I'm a 1st year veg grower) 
As my patch is small (is it ever big enough?) I was wondering if I might  try and sow something round the courgettes,   and sweetcorn looked a possiblity (even thought late to sow I guess I might still be able to find some plants)
From what you say I could put a few around or just on 2 sides?

[Kristen]

I do 18" apart in each direction, I have read of 14" along the row and 24" between rows.  They must be planted in a block [4 or more wide] though, not a row - except for Mini-pop baby corn which is harvested unfertilized, so can be grown in a row.

Sweetcorn do not transplant well, so I would avoid plants in the garden centre - unless they are grown in, say, peat pots - which you can plant whole and they will then rot down, and thus the plant will not be disturbed during planting.

I have grown mine in pots I made from newspaper - again, so that they can be planted "whole"

[themoog]

I plant my squashes between the sweetcorn, but you need to have fed the soil really well before hand (vast amounts on manure on mine in autumn or early spring) otherwise you'll get poor yields on both.

[Bombers]

I plant my squashes between the sweetcorn, but you need to have fed the soil really well before hand (vast amounts on manure on mine in autumn or early spring) otherwise you'll get poor yields on both.

That's precisely what I have done this year, on a small 8' x 4' bed. All I need now, is a long hot summer!