[Pony Girl]

Can anyone recommend a good way of getting sweetcorn off to a good start?

I've heard they put down long roots and was thinking of sowing them in the root trainers you use for sweetpeas and balancing these on pots of compost.

Is it best to start them at the beginning of April or wait until the middle of the month?

[DD.]

I chit mine:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=34827.msg417144#msg417144

and then pop each into a pot of compost - no wastages.

Timed right, they go out with a good solid root system with very little disturbance (which they hate) when you remove them from the pot.

I will start mine in mid-April - about 100 of them, but you may be OK going a little bit earlier.

[simonwatson]

I second chitting. Works really well and is dead easy.

[JayG]

I never used to chit anything (except spuds!) until last year when I got very poor germination from a packet of sweetcorn seeds.

This year I will chit them just long enough to make sure I only sow viable seeds - it only takes a few days and rates fairly low on the "faffing" scale! 

Last year I also chitted some pea seeds after a no-show outdoors - more or less 100% germination (think the pigeons probably nobbled the others because I didn't protect them very well.)

[bigben]

I always start mine in deep paper pots. Start them off indoors in a warm place and so far have not had to resort to chitting.

The problem seems to be timing it right. The year before last I started too early and put them out because they were getting big. It got cold and they all died so I had to resow and made the mistake of sowing two half packs of different types - they cross pollinated and I got very bland corn.

[DD.]

It's not a question of having to resort to chitting.

It's simple to do and you know that every seed you pop in is viable.

[bigben]

It's not a question of having to resort to chitting.

It's simple to do and you know that every seed you pop in is viable.

I have grown sweetcorn for just 3 years and each year sown 24 paper tubes. My worst year saw 22 of the 24 germinate. Last year they all germinated, the first year 23 germinated. So while I agree chitting might be simple but with average germination rates of 95% it is easier to sow a couple of pots more. It would be just my luck to leave them chitting too long and see them rot. I have made my share of mistakes with sweetcorn but so far the germinating has been the easy bit.

[JayG]

No-one is more anti-faff than me Bigben, but when you only get around 30% germination from a fresh pack of seeds of a variety which have always previously delivered nearly 100% you lose a bit of confidence about what will happen next time, although I have made sure I've bought them from a different supplier this year.

[bigben]

Jay - with 30% germination I would be chitting! 

I will let you know how this years batch goes as Mrs Ben and the Benlets loved last years corn so much they told me I had to grow double this year.

[Dom2599]

My first year last year with sweetcorn and they all germinated, however, this year i'm going to try the chitting method as i've bought new seed, so hopefully another bumper crop

[Pony Girl]

Next question then: how do you chit sweetcorn? 

[Ian_A]

never chitted sweetcorn before: I just pop 1 seed into individual pots to germinate - usually all but a couple germinates - then pop out. However, if germination really was very poor and chitting facilitated that then i would consider it,

[mumofstig]

here's how to
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=76184.msg862191#msg862191

[GYO Girl]

Thanks for the link mum, I didn't know you could pre-chit parsnip seed, I'll certainly give that a go.