[Trillium]

It's true Jim T, corn does give only about 2 cobs per plant, and on rare occasion, a small 3rd one but don't hold your breath. When you plant in blocks, that means in a square, not in a line like a fence. You'd plant them about 4-6" apart, 4 across then as 4 down so you have a square. The wind can then blow the pollen pcs against each other for better pollination as bees are a bit lax on pollinating corn. If you've a family to feed, you might want to quickly start quite a few more to enjoy the delights of fresh corn on the cob later. Another 30 or so wouldn't hurt, and you could plant them 4-6 plants wide and 10 or so plants long. Corn is also a hungry feeder for nitrogen so something with either a high first number in fertilizer or comfrey tea or chicken poo pellets should give them the needed boost, same with a bit of water if the season becomes dry.

[Russellx]

I've been growing sweetcorn in my garden for about 25 years, and have worked my way through the easily available varieties and I like Sundance best. I have always grown it at 15 inch spacings, I get about 2 cobs per plant, and I top dress with whatever manure/compost I can get once the plants are growing away strongly.
A couple of years ago I inherited a weed-ridden allotment plot, and I could not face more than half a plot of potatoes, so I tried Sundance for weed control.
The idea was to plant at wider spacings than usual so that I could easily spot weed, but still have a well-covered plot to shade the weeds out. I calculated that at 20 inch spacings each plant would have about twice the usual growing space.
To my surprise, off my 60 (yes 60!) plants I got about 3 cobs per plant. Also I noticed that the corner and edge plants in the blocks were consistently bigger and more productive than the plants near the centre of the block.
So next season I planted (rather fewer!) plants at 24 inch centres. All the plants had at least 3 cobs, but there was no difference in yield between centres and edges.
Being next to the allotment gate my plants were very visible and widely admired, which improved my personal status in the allotment community.  Naturally I did not bother to point out what one can deduce from the above figures, which is that the best yield per unit area of land used came from the 15 inch spacings, and that all the wider spacings achieve is to make you look and feel good about it.

[Dabhand]

Very interesting Rx.... and welcome to the plot..

[Smudge]

Has anyone else heard of the three sisters technique, a companion planting method, corn in the middle in a group, peas grown around it, so they trial up the stalks, and then squash grown around it for ground weed control.
I'm def gonna give this a go this year! I am going to start a new topic tomo, all about companion planting, i have found it so useful as on my allotment there is about every bug and pest you could ever imagine!

[richyrich7]

Yes very interesting reading Russell, larger spacing even at 15" than I normally use, but this year I think I'll try 15's, wonder if staggered spacings might improve yield without using up to much more land.

Welcome to the site  

[richyrich7]

Here you go smudge Three sisters take a look at this.

Looking forward to your companion planting thread.

[Smudge]

Thank you very much Richy rich. that was just what i needed too read! Am gonna get to work on my thread soon X

[Oscar Too]

Well, the chitted corn has fallen victim to some sort of disorder.

It germinated quickly, caught up with the pot-sown corn, and then fell over about three weeks after being potted.

The leaves are limp and have a dark stain along the central rib.

Could they have picked up a virus during the chitting process?  Anyone else seen similar?

Oscar

[richyrich7]

Sounds like damping off fungi to me, you can treat any unaffected plants with cheshunt compound, making sure you have good ventilation will help prevent it reoccurring.

[Trillium]

And don't overwater corn, in either seedling or growing stages. It really doesn't like it.

[David.]

I grow loads of sweetcorn for both eating and hen food and find I get best germination if the cell trays are on a high shelf in the greenhouse and not allowed to get too wet. I also seem to get better germination rates with saved seed rather than expensive shop bought seed, but it seems to run out of steam after a few years.

The "rounded" sort of sweetcorn seed could also be polenta maiize for grinding into flour.