[Missy1970]

Morning All

After my first lot of sweetcorn went mouldy whilst chitting I decided to sow direct in toilet roll tubes did this the weekend and upon checking today I notice the rolls had a fur growing on them and a few had it growing on the compost so i decided to transplant them into pots as its going to be some time before they go out -  trouble is when I did this I noticed whilst the corns had chitted some where a little furry is this normal and ok or should I just go buy some more seeds???

Thanks
Missy

[JayG]

Toilet roll tubes do go furry, as can the surface of the compost if kept a bit too moist.

They would probably have been fine as they were, but having turfed the poor things out I would suggest you discard any dodgy looking ones and replace with new seed. On a warm sunny windowsill they should be through in 5-7 days; mine usually are! 

[dig4victory]

My first lot of corn sowings  ended with mixed results - just a few seem ok, most shoots seem to be browning and looking jaded, droopy and dying, frankly - I have no idea what has gone wrong - anyone any ideas?  They have been started the same way as always in our mini greenhouses.  Am going to sew a new lot today and hope for better luck this time.

[JayG]

Dig4victory, you have not put your location in your personal profile so we don't know where you live but assuming you live somewhere in the UK I would say that they are suffering from fluctuating temperatures and/or the cold.

Mini-greenhouses heat up and cool down much quicker than larger ones (or indoors, of course), and sweetcorn really are not good at standing up to that sort of treatment.

[dig4victory]

Home Counties, down South!
I think you are right JayG - thinking about it I probably bought them out into the normal air because the weather was looking so good then put them back at night etc....thanks for that - the next lot I'm sowing today can stay in the greenhouse.  That usually works for me - don't know why I changed it!

[dig4victory]

I just sowed my next lot of corn and emptied the old compost plugs into a bucket to reuse, and I sorted through each plug while dumping out - I noticed that most of the corn had a good root(s) growing but no sprout and some had neither - I wonder if I sowed them too deep......anyway, fingers crossed for this time.

Btw, the phone rang while I was planting so I went in and had a conversation leaving the corn just popped into the finger holes I had made - I came out to find pigeons had nicked the corn from the holes!!!!  Cheek 

[Trillium]

Corn seed suppliers will be doing well by you this year, dig4victory 

As said, corn needs relatively stable temps, more to the warm side than anything as they are a hot weather crop like zucchini, cukes, aubergines, etc. Corn likes some moisture but not too much so it sounds like you've been a bit heavy on the watering as well. The loo rolls of late have a construction glue that is more prone to rot so watering lightly from below is the best method.