Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: stompy on May 22, 2006, 15:04
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This is probarbly a daft question.
How many cobs do you get off one plant. :?
(Told you it was a daft question) :)
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Usually one sometimes 2
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i had 3 off 1 last yr but i think its best to keep to 1 per plant so all the goodness goes to 1 cob :)
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I don't like sweetcorn much but I planted some at the weekend for Ruppert who I go halves with.
He said to put them a foot apart, so I did. They do look very close together though and my wife seems to think the same. I'll just have to see.
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i hope a foot apart is right cos that is what i have done with mine.
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Planted mine out about two weeks ago and, although they haven't died, they seem to have stopped growing. I've heard you have to be careful when transplanting them because they hate having their roots disturbed. I think (hope) they're maybe just getting their second wind.
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I sprayed my seedlings with seaweed extract after planting them out and they perked up mightily.
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Just to be different mine are still growing on under cover & will be until the end of the first week in June....they hate cold & like the Tom's, Courgettes, & Squash's they'll be in for another few days yet. Third 'pot on', into 5" pots standing about 6" tall at the moment. With compost as cheap as it is it's a good way to go IF you've got the space & time to mess.
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I always go 18 inches apart with sweetcorn - you can run climbing french beans up them as well.
At last the weather seems to have turned!
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Great news my early crop of sweetcorn (sown febuary) germinated into 5 lil babys (of a possible 20) now 1 1/2 feet tall
My 2nd crop none germinated (of a possible 40)
My 3rd crop used 3 seed packets (almost 128 sweetcorn seeds) and 1 have germinated LMAO its been 3 weeks and they r in a heated propagator ive even just left a few pots in the greenhouse to see if the prop was wrong conditions and they aint germinated either... does any1 else have trouble with like this? I chitted half of them to see if that would help but nope :(
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What were you going to do with 188 sweetcorns?????
I'm glad its not just me. I've so far got 36 from a possible 60. I planted them out just before I went down to Kent last week and OH didn't manage to kill them off, but they were looking very pale when I came home. OH said I planted them in the wrong place, as the ground seems to dip a little there, but perhaps it was because we've had so much rain. I looked today, and they seem a little greener!!!
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I reckon you would get much better germination results by chitting the seeds indoors.
Just pop them between two pieces of wet kitchen roll in a tupperware box or the like. After a few days you can see which are sprouting and plant them.
They take almost no room in the house (an airing cupboard will do).
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Blimey Pheonix.....don't know what went wrong there....not quite sure why you started in February given that they aren't really happy out until June. Sounds as if the seed was dodgy unless they were either drowned or dryed out after germinating. Could have been too hot I guess ? Mine came up like cress....I think only one failed to germinate, a couple were a it slow but the other 30 ( I think) have got away well. I'm lucky to live in a 'growing' area & have access to Growers Sundries stores where they sell Market Garden seeds as opposed to those 'dank & cold' so called 'nurseries' & those too hot, too dry Garden Emporiums. I must admit I was taken aback by the extremely shrivelled appearance of the Foil packed seed....but it was up as quick as wink,.....inside 8 - 10 days from something akin to a bit of 'grit'. Something seriously wrong somewhere there.
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I've heard you have to be careful when transplanting them because they hate having their roots disturbed.
lol - I also found that out after i transferred them from 1 inch seed trays to 3 inch pots -now i've got to get them in the ground -
BTW - can anyone explain 'hardening off' for me ?
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This just means getting the seedlings used to being outside before you plant them out. You're supposed to bring stuff outside and then take them in at night for a few days. I've just unzipped my plastic greenhouse on good days and then left it open all the time when it got a bit warmer (then closed it up again when winter returned!)
Funnily enough the seedlings actually do get harder as they get used to being outside - some of my tomato plants got plunged into my allotment without being hardened off and they were a lot floppier than the other ones. I put a bit of protection round for a few days and they're much firmer now.
My allotment is in a nice sheltered corner whereas I have to bring things on in my liitle greenhouse on my very windy balcony - so I think most things are quite relieved when they get on the allotment!
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thanks noshed, i had visions of having to empty my pots on to a tray and leaving them out in the sun :0
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I planted mine in toilet roll tubes as suggested on here, so when I planted them tubes and all, there was no root disturbance. OH said they still look sick, but they are gradually getting greener. I think its where we have had so much rain this past month. They've only been out of the greenhouse 3 weeks.
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Hi all,
Must be lucky ...........Mrs Oggy acheived 75 % germination doing nothing out of the ordinary, 15 now planted out, purchased another 5, because they looked good, all are outside and green.
How tall do they grow ? and any advice on pollenation.
oggy
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They really need to be planted in a 'block.....ie 20 plants....4 x 5...or 5 x 4, & they'll self pollinate, the wind does that for you, but if they're in a row & the prevailing wind is across the row, the pollen won't get distributed. By planting in a block, they have a chance all round. Height wise, they can get pretty tall....5 '....taller with some varieties, previous advice is bang on re. distances, but get them well 'set' in the ground, earth them up a bit if needs be once tehy're growing well, because they can get knocked a bout a bit by the wind. I reckon on two cobs per plant, although some earlier have suggested only one....more is an exception where I am.
The other thing to watch out for, if you're growing one of the super sweet varieties is that you dont plant by someone elses non SS ( or that the ones you buy in aren't because although you'll still get cobs, you wont get the ful benefit of the SS breeding if they x-pollinate.
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Ok tried ur method of sowing sweetcorn between 2 pieces of kitchen roll........................ FAB every single seed germinated in 2 DAYS lol ive put them in pots now will plant them out when im bak off hols :) Thanks guys!!
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Ok tried ur method of sowing sweetcorn between 2 pieces of kitchen roll........................ FAB every single seed germinated in 2 DAYS lol ive put them in pots now will plant them out when im bak off hols :) Thanks guys!!
It's magic isn't it? I did it for the first time this year and was really impressed.
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I'm trying beans up the strongest-looking plants - I'll report on progress...
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Has anyone got experience of growing beans up Sweet Corn ? I do a bit of intercropping.....usually with cell grown X3 Leeks because they can be used in all manner of ways & go in between various plants, lettuce, carrots etc. without one interfering with the other. I'd have thought 'twining' beans, ie. runners & climbing French might have strangled the corn ?.....the beans would be in front of the Corn growth wise ? & is the Corn, even come August / September tall enough to do a proper job of support or do you just let the beans trail about ?
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I like the idea of that, would like to hear more. :shock:
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The theory is known as 'The Three Sisters' and was developed by American Indians in the south west. This was a hot and arid region and the system maximised yield for them in those circumstances.
The corn was helped by the extra nitrogen provided by the beans and gave support to the beans and shade to the squash grown between the rows.
This minimised water loss from the squash and really used the land both vertically as well as horizontally. With the inputs of dung and water they managed to get foodstuff from a pretty harsh environment.
I have tried this myself and it works but we don't have the same weather conditions. I found that the squash didn't do too well (it wasn't sunny enough?) and I couldn't get inbetween the rows to pick the beans. Now I just put a few climbing French beans on the outside - runner beans are too vigerous.
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That's lucky - I've just put french beans round the outside. I'll try a couple of squash just for the hell of it. You never know in the costa del Walthamstow.