Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: garddwr on January 11, 2009, 16:17

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: garddwr on January 11, 2009, 16:17

I would like to grow sweetcorn but will it block the rest of the sun from the plot ? How tall will it grow and is it worth growing ?

I will grow everything in rows on the new plot and I have my plan but I am debating weather to grow sweetcorn or not ?

Thanks

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: SpudtheBinx on January 11, 2009, 16:20

Good question! We grew a supersweet last year and it grew to about 5' tall although some seemed stunted in less rich soil so it may get even taller on better soils. It's worth checking different varieties though as I know you can get some that grow to about 15'

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: DD. on January 11, 2009, 16:24

You really need to grow sweetcorn in blocks, not rows. Height depends on variety, but can be 6 feet plus.

Never really had a problem with it blocking out the sun, it's not dense enough & the alignment of my rows helps.

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: garddwr on January 11, 2009, 16:24

Thanks. I was thinking about Lark variety but I'll check how tall it grows.

What would be the problem with growing in rows ? Bad pollination ?

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: DD. on January 11, 2009, 16:28

Just looking through the suppliers of said variety.

Unwins say their packets contain 45+ seeds, sufficient for 25 plants! I'd be bl**dy annoyed if that's all I got from 45 seed! :evil:

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: garddwr on January 11, 2009, 16:30

Me too Dave. T+M say that you get 30 seeds in a pack and I wanted to grow a 16 metre row  and 9inch betwen so I'll need 66 seeds. Is this right ?

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: woodburner on January 11, 2009, 16:32

Yes blocks for pollination.

If you grow it on th north side/end/corner of your plot you won't be shading your plot hardly if at all. ;)  You might be shading your neighbour's though. :shock:  :roll:  :twisted:  :lol:

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: DD. on January 11, 2009, 16:33

As I said, don't grow in a row, grow in a block., this helps with pollination.

General recommended spacing is 18" between plants.

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: DD. on January 11, 2009, 16:36

Try Moles Seeds, probably more than you need but only £2.05 for 250 seeds. Beat that! (No postage either). Keep you going for a couple of years.

http://www.molesseeds.co.uk/acatalog/Products_F1_Lark_4650.html

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: garddwr on January 11, 2009, 16:40

Thanks DD.

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: WirralWally on January 12, 2009, 01:53

Just a tip:
If you grow sweetcorn in a row you are more likely to harvest baby corn cobs (which is preferable to some).
If you want sweetcorn cobs (the big ones) you need to grow it in blocks (not in a row).

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: DIGGER on January 12, 2009, 08:36

Quote from: "garddwr"

Thanks. I was thinking about Lark variety but I'll check how tall it grows.

What would be the problem with growing in rows ? Bad pollination ?

I have grown Lark for the last two years and planted Courgettes beneath them to utalise space.
Very successful and very tasty.
First year forgot to net them and the birds thought they were very nice to.

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: Sadgit on January 12, 2009, 10:03

mine were 5ft last year and the ones I bought in Italy were about 10ft!!! and produced terrible cobs :) never will I buy seeds that are for another country again, damn our short cold summers :)

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: greg.t on January 12, 2009, 18:57

hi sadgit just wondering what type of sweetcorn you use? I live not far from you at brotton and fancied trying some this year... :wink:

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: Sadgit on January 12, 2009, 19:17

Hi Greg,

last year I planted Sweetcorn - Applause F1. Will defo try them again this year and hopefully have a better summer so I get more ripe cobs.

had an ok (ish) crop and far better than the year before when using wilko specials..

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: SG6 on January 12, 2009, 19:36

Close to where I work there was a field of sweetcorn. They were about 6-7ft high, but varieties will differ.

As said plant in blocks. Sweetcorn pollinate by dropping pollen from the flowers that are at the top of the plant. The pollen gets distributed by the wind. So if in a row there is little chance of good pollination. In many instances the wind will simply blow the pollen away from the row.

I believe that each kernel needs to get pollinated so the best chance for this is if it is in a block. And the bigger the better - have you got a field :D  :D

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: jannie on January 12, 2009, 20:13

i plant the three sisters bed ,sweetcorn in a block with a climbing french bean growing up the corn and a pumpkin underneath , i think the bean feeds the corn and so on it was on gardeners world a few yrs ago, tried sweetcorn this way and sweetcorn just in a block one yr and the sweetcorn planted in the 3 sisters bed produced more jan :)

Title: Sweetcorn
Post by: alfman on January 13, 2009, 10:13

Hi Garddwr, I've grown sweetcorn for years but only the varieties from the usual seed merchants and they've all been over 6ft. Considering they don't go outside till the end of may/june, the sun is pretty high then and doesn't cast much shadow and cause much of a problem. Just leave about 18" before your next crop. :)

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: greg.t on January 14, 2009, 20:54

Quote from: "Sadgit"

Hi Greg,

last year I planted Sweetcorn - Applause F1. Will defo try them again this year and hopefully have a better summer so I get more ripe cobs.

had an ok (ish) crop and far better than the year before when using wilko specials..

thanks for the reply was thinking of trying northern F1 supposed to be better suited to our area? the summer could'nt be worse than last or could it... :?

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: Steve.P on January 15, 2009, 09:15

I tried sweetcorn for the first time last year. The variety was Bodacious F1. These were grown in blocks, each plant 16ins apart and produced about 2 cobs per plant. Being on an open site with plenty of wind, pollination was no problem, but i did hear that to help pollination you should shake the plant daily. This year will be growing Courgette in between the plants to save space.

Title: how tall does sweetcorn grow ?
Post by: rawbinood on January 15, 2009, 16:36

I believe some of the newer F1 commercial varieties grow shorter (from 4ft to around 6ft) to put effort into producing cobs while the older heritage types grow very tall.