[azubah]

I think I learned something about sweet corn this year. For 40 years I have been buying the best F1 hybrids and got a few good cobs, but mostly poorly pollinated cobs. I sowed them in separate pots and looked after them very carefully before planting out in the best possible conditions.
The chap on a plot near mine sows his in seed trays, all crowded together and plants them out breaking some of the roots in the process.
This year he gave me a few of his rejects and I planted them out of politeness as I had the space. There were not many of them so I did not think they would get pollinated very well.
I was surprised, therefore, to pick a couple of cobs today to find them fully pollinated!
I think his success is that his seed is mongrel rather than pedigree.

[mumofstig]

I think it is the weather at pollination time, that determines whether you get good pollination or not.
 
In previous years I've had quite a few part cobs, after wind and rain at the wrong time, but this year we had really good weather at pollination time and perfect corn to harvest. Woo Hoo!

[Growster...]

We bought some plants locally, and they've just stormed away, such that we have far too many cobs now, and they'll get plonked around on doorsteps as did the toms and cucumbers and courgettes...

Last year, I grew my own sweetcorn from seed and they were weedy, tough and uninteresting. This is a totally different season, and we'll hope the garden centre gets the same plants next year, as they're already on our list!

Had a couple today actually, and feel sick..;0)

[azubah]

Hope you are feeling better soon, Growster. What did you have with the cobs? They should not make you feel sick on their own.

[SnooziSuzi]

I sowed f1 Invincible this year, but I thought I had sown them too soon so I sowed F1 Incredible about 5 weeks later. 

Unexpectedly the Incredible grew (I thought it was list as the crop looked weedy) and the later sown Invincible also grew! 

I think the weather has been good this year with more sunny days (in the North east) than cloudy so we've just been lucky.

They were grown in 4x4 and 7x7 grids respectively and nearby allotmenteer's were growing only 2x3 rows high I think helped mine and definitely hindered theirs

[Growster...]

Hope you are feeling better soon, Growster. What did you have with the cobs? They should not make you feel sick on their own.

Somewhat gluttonous, Azubah - nothing more than unsalted butter and black pepper...

And white local bread!

(Really, it was a comment we use when we think we've gone over the top)!

[JayG]

As MoS has mentioned, apart from growing in blocks, the weather at the time of pollination has the greatest bearing on how well the cobs will be filled, although they don't help their own cause by having this 'only just in time' policy when it comes to producing the silks to receive the pollen from the tassels.

I have tried staggering the sowings by a couple of weeks and planting them out upwind of the others to improve pollination of the later silks, although I've always managed to pick a particularly poor summer for the experiment - would probably have worked this year but of course you only ever have the dubious benefit of hindsight.