sweetcorn seeds

mr Isaccs · « **on:** August 21, 2009, 18:10 »

Hi all, I'm one of these people who likes to spend as little money as possible on seeds and have been growing tomatoes and chillis from seeds I have collected myself at home for a long while, Now I have an allotment I would like to try collecting more seeds from crops grown this year, most plants are very blatant as to how to reproduce but I am baffled by sweetcorn, does anyone know how I can grow again from this years corn crop.

thanx in advance

regards

DD. · « **Reply #1 on:** August 21, 2009, 18:46 »

You'd have to let the cob fully ripen & then dry out so the kernals harden.

What variety are you thinking of? A lot are F1's which won't breed true to type.

mr Isaccs · « **Reply #2 on:** August 21, 2009, 19:10 »

Hi DD, not sure which type I grew this year coz the top of the seed pack has gone, just a sweet american variety apparently, have grown and cropped already, but there are side shoots coming out of base of plant with what looks like corn kernels but not sheathed, thought this may be what oyu re-sow

DD. · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2009, 19:12 »

They're called "Tillers", they produce a little corn.

If it's not a hybrid, what you need to let ripen & dry is what you'd actually eat.

mr Isaccs · « **Reply #4 on:** August 21, 2009, 19:42 »

Thanx for that DD
I'll give it a go with the few small ones left on the plants and see what happens next year,
I'll still buy some seeds as a contingency plan tho, just in case, plan to grow many more next year, 15 plants wasn't enough for me and oth

Swing Swang · « **Reply #5 on:** August 21, 2009, 20:07 »

If you can't be absolutely sure that they're not F1s then buy fresh seeds for next year.
Even if you have an open pollinated variety sweetcorn cross pollinate very easily so your crop should be fairly isolated to be sure of maintaining the strain. Personally speaking if you've not grown a fairly large(ish) crop (say 100) in an isolated position and where you can select seed from some of the central plants to reduce the risks of cross pollination then I'd buy fresh seed.

I find that Tozer's do large packets that last a few years, and as I pre-chit there's no risk of my planting non-viable seed, and as it works out significantly cheaper than buying the seed in smaller packets each year so there is less incentive for me to want to save.

Now if we're talking about a heritage variety of white maize that came from a farm in South Africa and which I'm getting Dad to grow for me in Portugal because our growing season isn't long enough then I'm going to be saving seed from one of the nine plants that didn't get eaten! Either that or get some new seed when I visit again.

SS

DD. · « **Reply #6 on:** August 21, 2009, 20:10 »

I've always found Moles seeds to be amonst the cheapest for buying in large quantity.

Swing Swang · « **Reply #7 on:** August 22, 2009, 07:01 »

Should have mentioned Moles too DD - they didn't have the variety that I wanted when I last bought sweetcorn though.

SS

DD. · « **Reply #8 on:** August 22, 2009, 07:12 »

This is from a previous post where I did a costing. I know you don't want 1,000 seeds, but it's great for sharing!

Quote from: DD. on April 27, 2009, 16:57

As a price comparison, for F1 Lark, Moles cost is �5.05 for 1,000 seed, post paid.

T & M are �1.99 for 30 plus postage. Pro rata 30 from Moles would cost just over 15p and 1000 from T & M would be over �66 with postage on top!!!!!!!!!!

mr Isaccs · « **Reply #9 on:** August 22, 2009, 08:24 »

I think from what you're both saying maybe sweetcorn is one crop I shalln't try to regenerate and at a fiver for a thousand who needs to.
Its not all about the cost to me tho, it's alot to do with the challenge, a few weeks back I was given some black and red currants from a fellow allotmenteer and I wondered if I could de-seed them and grow my own, all the other gardeners poo pooed my idea but after extracting the seeds and drying them out I popped a few in pots and I now have 10 X 6" healthy plants, dont know if they'll ever fruit but unless you try you never know eh, have got some asparagus seeds drying as I type.

thanx for your words of wisdom guys

DD. · « **Reply #10 on:** August 22, 2009, 08:38 »

No reason why the currants shouldn't be viable. I get loads of young plants grow under my blackcurrant bushes from the ones I and the pigeons miss and drop on the ground.

I did asparagus a few years back as a bit of a challange. Planted 40 seeds obtained from a fellow plot holder, 39 germinated and grew into good healthy crowns & I've now got a cracking asparagus bed for nowt!

mr Isaccs · « **Reply #11 on:** August 22, 2009, 08:50 »

Thats given me hope for success DD.
Did you wait till spring to plant your asparagus seeds or do you think I should plant them up now?

DD. · « **Reply #12 on:** August 22, 2009, 08:50 »

Planted mine in the spring, that is the natural time after all!

mr Isaccs · « **Reply #13 on:** August 22, 2009, 09:01 »

Spring it is then, look forward to 2013 when I can hopefully pick some fat spears

Thanks DD

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