[Ghost]

Does it work? Mine never seems to totally pollinate despite growing in blocks. Only seem to get kernels down one side of the cob.

[JayG]

I don't think you could hand pollinate sweet corn in the same way you can something with much heavier pollen (like cucurbits, for instance.)

Sweet corn pollen is extremely light and therefore would be almost impossible to collect and distribute evenly onto the silks.

Best you can do is to gently tap the plants (morning is said to be best) to release the pollen, although if it's windy you will probably be too late to do that.

You can move (or remove) any leaves which seem to be blocking the path of the pollen from the tassels to the silks.............and then just cross your fingers and wait! 

[Ghost]

You can move (or remove) any leaves which seem to be blocking the path of the pollen from the tassels to the silks.............and then just cross your fingers and wait! 

I've thought about removing some of those leaves but they're quite large. Will doing that impact the health of the plant?

[JayG]

They won't miss the odd one, but don't overdo it for any single plant - wind pollination is a game of chance and you can only try to tip the odds a little more in your favour. 

[Goosegirl]

I grow them in my greenhouse and tap the main stalk with a cane to release the clouds pollen. Worked well last year as the cobs were all fully pollinated. Can be very windy here but, even so, outdoor ones have not been pollinated fully.

[JayG]

Too much wind = horizontal pollen dispersal = poor pollination of cobs GG - being able to have control over that by growing in a greenhouse must be very helpful (if you've got the space!) 

[Kleftiwallah]

I'll try and remember to check the pollination levels between the upwind end and the downwind end of my sweetcorn block.  I've crammed them in at double+ the recommended spacing

Cheers,   Tony.

[JayG]

Don't go to that amount of trouble if your "block" covers an acre Klefti (even horizontal pollen has to land eventually!) 

[seaside]

I no longer remove leaves to aid pollination. I actually now think these leaves, that are slightly cupped, are the plants way of catching a sudden shower of pollen and distributing it more evenly over time with less far to fall to reach the silks. That makes more sense to me... these plants aren't daft.
What I have done a few times this year is bend over carefully the odd stalk and tap so the outside silks on the prevailing windward edge of the block get a bit of a shower. Easy to break a stalk though if one isn't careful. Most pollens seem to be ready to drop late morning in my experience.

[gavinjconway]

I just let nature do its thing... It's the way we used to do it on our farm where we grew 600-800 acres of maize every year... and you know what... the cobs were full of kernels..

[JayG]

I'm sure you're right Gavin, but most of us are growing sweet corn on a considerably smaller scale than that! 

[gavinjconway]

I know ... I know.. But one should leave nature to do it's thing and as there is always a wind in this country it should work.

[mumofstig]

It should - but unfortunately doesn't always 

[azubah]

I did try it this year.
I don't know if it made any difference or not.
I cut off one of the strands with the little dangly things on, when it was ripe, and put it on top of the silks. I don't see that it can do any harm to try it.
The only problem as I see it is that if you shake it about too much on cutting it off you could lose some of the pollen.

[seaside]

I know ... I know.. But one should leave nature to do it's thing and as there is always a wind in this country it should work.

I understand what you're getting at, but best not tell that to a sheep farmer down our way. they'd have no lambs left for market.. I've never known a successful farmer yet to let nature run it's own course.
For us allotment growers, sweet corn crops are often blocks of 30 plants or so. Not the same as a 5 acre field, where pollen is a continuous shifting sea full of plankton.
With butternut squash, in hard to grow Summers, I have to hand-pollinate on the rare occasions males and females are flowering at the same time, or I get virtually no useable fruit.