[Lawrence]

I was wondering what would be the minimum number of plants you could grow to get good pollination?
I really like sweetcorn, but I am never going to eat 200+ cobs!
So would I get away with a block of 4x4? or 5x5?

[Dom2599]

I was wondering what would be the minimum number of plants you could grow to get good pollination?
I really like sweetcorn, but I am never going to eat 200+ cobs!
So would I get away with a block of 4x4? or 5x5?

I grew a 4x4 block last year and got about 2 cobs per plant

[aelf]

Yes, that would be fine. In theory, you only need two plants close together to guaruntee germination. Last year I grew only six plants in a line, so not even in a block, and had very good crops, with several cobs per plant.

[mumofstig]

I think that even one plant would work, the pollen would fall down from the tassel at the top onto the silks of the cobs - I doubt anyone would want to grow just 1 though 

[bigben]

I am sure I spotted on gardeners world a couple of years ago that Toby grew two plants to a station which he claimed would be ok. I did this by accident last year with one of mine and they did both produce one cob each - the same as the others. This might improve your yeild if you only have room for a few and it would give double the chance for pollination.

[JayG]

The idea of block planting is to improve the chances of successful pollination whichever direction the wind blows - if planted in a straight line and the wind blows at right angles during pollen release there's a theoretical chance that none of them would get pollinated.

I suggest that 3X3 is probably about the minimum practical size for a block, although personally the thought of possibly only having 9 cobs to eat in a whole year is bringing me close to tears!   

[potatogrower]

i grow 4x4 too. only problem is that i grow next to a fence and some of them don't grow that well so i end up with about 6 cobs, others not formed or have missing corn. i can only recommend that they get good access to sunlight, air and are fed well.   wish i wrote down which variety i 1st grew when i started growing my own    the yield was very good

[galen]

To be different I grow 3 X 4 and get at least 2 cobs per plant. Living so close to the lottie I get the chance of going down there daily to give the plants a gentle shake at pollination time.

[DD.]

I'll be growing 4 x 25 and I'm dribbling at the thought!

[fatbelly]

I am further North than some on here so our weather isn't always the best. With this in mind i restrict the cobs on each plant to one. Its a shame I know but this way I do get one really good cob per plant as opposed to 2 small or medium ones.

[JayG]

I'm at about the same latitude as you Fatbelly, and just let them get on with it, although usually finish up with pretty much the same results - they (Swift) always seem to want to produce 2 or more cobs but just run out of summer (or more accurately, never had enough proper summer to start with!) 

[Lawrence]

Thanks for all your help, I think I shall go with a 5x5 block or maybe a 6x6
To be honest a 3x3 would give me 9 more cobs than I ate last year!
But in reality I will probably just be feeding the local wildlife...