[Pompey Spud]

Another case wrapped up by the Veg Police!! 

PUP!

[Sharonx]

DD this made me chuckle! fancy growing Maize and not realising it! The father in Law planted some on his plot and gave some to his brother. He reckoned it was lovely, but he would say that.

[DD.]

Didn't go "moo" afterwards, I hope!

[Elcie]

Hi everyone, I have a similar question although my sweetcorn are now between 4 and 5 inches tall.  As a newbie I didn't realise they don't like root disturbance and I planted them in seed tray modules which are showing some signs of roots through the hole in the bottom.

Shall I:

1. leave them where they are
2. transplant carefully (!) to toilet roll inners or similar
3. transplant to plot with cloche protection (well, 2lt plastic bottles anyway!)
4. transplant to plot without cloche protection but with fleece protection over night?

Thanks everyone.

[Bombers]

Hi everyone, I have a similar question although my sweetcorn are now between 4 and 5 inches tall.  As a newbie I didn't realise they don't like root disturbance and I planted them in seed tray modules which are showing some signs of roots through the hole in the bottom.

Shall I:

1. leave them where they are
2. transplant carefully (!) to toilet roll inners or similar
3. transplant to plot with cloche protection (well, 2lt plastic bottles anyway!)
4. transplant to plot without cloche protection but with fleece protection over night?

Thanks everyone.

I would start again Elcie. It's too early IMHO. You've got potentially 8 weeks or more of protecting against frosts. by then, they would be well beyond protecting with pop bottles or fleece.

[Elcie]

Hi everyone, I have a similar question although my sweetcorn are now between 4 and 5 inches tall.  As a newbie I didn't realise they don't like root disturbance and I planted them in seed tray modules which are showing some signs of roots through the hole in the bottom.

Shall I:

1. leave them where they are
2. transplant carefully (!) to toilet roll inners or similar
3. transplant to plot with cloche protection (well, 2lt plastic bottles anyway!)
4. transplant to plot without cloche protection but with fleece protection over night?

Thanks everyone.

I would start again Elcie. It's too early IMHO. You've got potentially 8 weeks or more of protecting against frosts. by then, they would be well beyond protecting with pop bottles or fleece.

Oh, that is sad - I have looked after them so well!  What would happen if I repotted them?  Would they just die then?

[DIGGER]

Why dont you repot them and do some more as a back up.

[David.]

DD this made me chuckle! fancy growing Maize and not realising it! The father in Law planted some on his plot and gave some to his brother. He reckoned it was lovely, but he would say that.

I deliberately grow Franchi seed's Polenta Mais - which gives a cob a hard cob of unshrivelled seeds - as food for our hens.

Around 500 plants going in this year.

[Swing Swang]

Regarding Maize.

I've been trying to grow South African white maize (mielies) for the last couple of years. This is for human consumption, not just for chickens and livestock, and tastes delicious.

A black Zimbabwean farmer (I think one of only two black farmers in this country), David Mwanaka, has been doing this successfully for the last 10 years or so and occasionally pops up in the press (do a google search). He even supplies one of the major supermarkets. In an abominably racist incident last year he was arrested in his own fields whilst harvesting his own crop as someone had reported him for theft.

Anyway last year my crop didn't ripen, but withstood the frosts up until early November.

I did a bit of asking around in SA earlier this year as I have a distant 'in-law' who's been involved in maize breeding. It seems as though I'd been aiming for success with 120 day varieties. I'm going to grow 'Zama Star', a commonly available 90 day variety, this year and hope for better results. Hopefully they'll ripen in time to braai/bbq whilst the weather is still warm!

Regards,

SS

[Sharonx]

Interesting story,
It will be interesting to see how these turn out. Report back with results!

Now I am totally confused. The 'Maize' I now discover was grown last year on our plot, was actually no good for human consumption, most of the cobs had very few kernals on them, and the minimal amount that was there was rock hard. My father-in-law would say anything was good, just because he's grown it, but that's just him.

Now I have brought a packet of 'Franchis'  Sementi but it also says Mais, is this Italian for Sweetcorn, or have I brought a packet of Maize??? Is this any good?

What does everyone else grow. Might start another topic on this one!

[mumofstig]

mais is Italian for corn and maize. It's the same for english really our corn can be for milling to flour or for sweetcorn.

MAIS SWEETCORN ZUCCHERINO 
This variety is called 'Sugery' because of it's sweet kernals.   

POLLENTA MAIS
Corn for grinding into polenta. During Roman times, it was called Puls or Polentum and was made with grains, but when the first shipments of sweetcorn mais came from the new world into Venice, Polenta started to be made with this corn. Dry the cobs, remov

What does your pkt say in english......rather than worry about italian.