Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Daisygirl on October 28, 2012, 17:41
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Hiya
last year I grew Golden Bantam sweetcorn and when I did eventually pick them because it looked like they were going rotten only half of the kernels had formed. Was I just unlucky with the wet weather or are they difficult to grow as a rule/
I thought I would have another go this year and wanted your advice on which variety to grow.
Cheers me dears
Daisy
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Yours sound like they suffered from poor pollination, just like some of mine :(
It was cold, wet and windy just when the pollen was being released >:(
it really does help if you grow them in blocks rather than rows, to help with pollination - just in case you didn't ;)
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Grew Sweetcorn Honeydew ( Marshalls) - super sweet - worked really well - planted as early as possible and got a decent harvest - bearing in mind the lack of sun this year - they were good.
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I grew Sundance planted 30 seeds in paper pots 27 germinated and generally got 2 cobs off each plant the taste was fantastic, still got a fair few in the freezer in the shed.
I also grew minipop which were a let down (again) won't be bothering with them next year.
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Grew Sweetcorn Honeydew ( Marshalls) - super sweet - worked really well - planted as early as possible and got a decent harvest - bearing in mind the lack of sun this year - they were good.
The Honeydew sound lovely (just had a peek on the website). I was very pleased with the Earlibird F1 that I grew this year - some of my plot neighbours were enquiring about them when their's were a poor show in comparison. However, I maintain that sowing them later worked in my favour as the seedlings were protected indoors/greenhouse during the cold spring whereas most people had planted their's out too early.
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I also grew minipop which were a let down (again) won't be bothering with them next year.
I have grown Sprint sweetcorn and, even though I had poor germination initially, they did come through in the end with well pollinated cobs.
Bazh, I also had disasters with minipop again. I can't seem to harvest them at the right time - they are either too small and break as I am harvesting them, or too big and they are rock hard and lack flavour!
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I also grew minipop which were a let down (again) won't be bothering with them next year.
I have grown Sprint sweetcorn and, even though I had poor germination initially, they did come through in the end with well pollinated cobs.
Bazh, I also had disasters with minipop again. I can't seem to harvest them at the right time - they are either too small and break as I am harvesting them, or too big and they are rock hard and lack flavour!
I'm not 100% sure Angela but I think harvesting time is what I'm doing wrong too, seems quite a small window of opportunity with the harvest and unfortunately working full time with a young family means I can't be at the plot everyday. With me they seem to go from no cobs showing to to big in a very short space of time............to high maintenance for me so there getting canned from next years list, however the Sundance will be getting increased they tasted so good.
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Having been 2 years without corn-on-the-cobs, I decided to grow them in my greenhouse. I had 3 spare plants that went outside planted in a triangle. When the indoor one's tassels formed, I tapped the stalks with a bamboo cane and the pollen was like a mist going everywhere. I live in a windy place, so no prob with pollination outside. Result - every kernel was pollinated indoors; outside - a disaaaaaster. Same results with dwarf French beans.
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I also grew minipop which were a let down (again) won't be bothering with them next year.
I have grown Sprint sweetcorn and, even though I had poor germination initially, they did come through in the end with well pollinated cobs.
Bazh, I also had disasters with minipop again. I can't seem to harvest them at the right time - they are either too small and break as I am harvesting them, or too big and they are rock hard and lack flavour!
I'm not 100% sure Angela but I think harvesting time is what I'm doing wrong too, seems quite a small window of opportunity with the harvest and unfortunately working full time with a young family means I can't be at the plot everyday. With me they seem to go from no cobs showing to to big in a very short space of time............to high maintenance for me so there getting canned from next years list, however the Sundance will be getting increased they tasted so good.
I might try them in the garden next year - not sure as now I have two half plots, I want to dedicate the veggie end of the garden to the children (not that it was that great due to tree roots). We will see, they will be the first to go if the pressure builds come sowing time!!!
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I totally agree about Minipop, gave ours to the ponies. The best ones for me this year were Swift. I just picked the last six on Thursday. They were superb and I'll grow them again
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Swift are very good, although any of the "early" F1 types will give you the best chance of a decent crop in our climate.
Last year I sowed in two batches and planted out in adjacent blocks about 2-3 weeks apart - weather conditions were such that the second batch caught up and outperformed the first.
This year I used the same technique, but the weather was just too bad for too long for the same thing to happen - the second batch mostly just failed to ripen in time. :(
The cobs I did get were delicious, and I can't imagine ever giving up on sweetcorn, even though next year whatever I do will probably turn out to be the wrong choice!
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Think a lot of us struggled with sweetcorn this last season.
I grew a variety called Double Standard which has white and yellow kernals, but they sulked a bit in the wet summer, so I ended up buying more plants from work (just labelled sweetcorn, so no idea which type - basic yellow supersweet)
Ended up coddling them in the greenhouse to get them going. They went out eventually and both lots eventually produced pretty much at the same time ::) Not large cobs and fewer than previous years, but OK.
Like JayG, I love homegrown sweetcorn too much to give up. Any cobs are welcome and having a double crop was no hardship :D
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I have just ordered “Tasty Gold F1”. I haven’t a clue what they are like. I just opened the Kings Seeds catalogue, closed my eyes and ordered the first name my finger pointed to. Has anyone tried them?