[Kristen]

I pollinate mine, in the greenhouse, by hand.   Tap the stem which releases a cloud of pollen and then "steer" the stalk so that the pollen lands on the silks.

[TheWhiteRabbit]

I have only grown the Supersweet varieties in recent years. They are all F1 so I doubt that is what you have from Realseeds (which I assume are open pollinated?), so you might want to try a Supersweet variety next year.

The Special Swiss is a supersweet variety!

[chillimummy]

Hope you get things sorted with council. Horrible to take time growing then it gets stolen or wrecked.
Need to feel safe on allotment too.

[AlaninCarlisle]

that sounds interesting - never grown them inside before
how are the sweet corn pollinated in the tunnel ? I thought they were wind pollinated or do you have a windy tunnel 

Just knock the stems every now and then and that gets the pollen cloud going

[pigguns]

My next batch are nearly ready but I think the weather is heading downhill-is it worth it to fleece them over?  I had loads of woodlice on my last lot and I found with my cues that woodlice just love climbing up fleece 

[gavinjconway]

Here is more info on growing the different types together.. Hope it helps..

You basically get 3 types of sweetcorn.
Hybrid Sweets = abbreviated as su
Supersweets = abbreviated as sh2
Sugar Enhanced = abbreviated as se

You can't just plant any of them together or you will get mutations of types and really strange cobs..

Supersweets (sh2) must only be grown on their own or 2 or 3 other sh2 types..
Hybrid Sweets (su) and Sugar Enhanced (se) can be mixed with each other no problem

[Kristen]

I have found it very difficult to find out what genotype the various varieties are, seed packet labelling is often poor (e.g. saying that they can be planted with any other variety, when clearly the results have proven that they can't)

e.g. "I decided to carry out an experiment to test the claims made in a well known seed catalogue, that isolation from other sweet corn varieties was not required for the varieties Swift F1 and Lark F1." when in fact the O/P planted those varieties with others nearby and the kernels were a mix of sweet and starchy (thus the assertion on the label was wrong)

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=69489.msg795032#msg795032

variety names are often used to gain marketing advantage without being clear about the genotype.

I read in
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/ho-98.pdf

"A relatively new type of sweet corn known as "triplesweet" has both sugar enhanced (se) and supersweet (sh2) kernels on the same ear, e.g.  Honey Select, Serendipity, Bon Appetit. "

that this type does not require isolation from other sweet corn types, and I also read of "tablesweet" ... all far too confusing for me thus personally I find it easier to just go for a single variety, or different varieties with staggered sowing so they don't release pollen at the same time, but that isn't any help for folk on allotments with near neighbours, or a plot next to a field which gets planted with foraging maize

[Ema]

Rats ate all of mine

[shuffle]

Rats ate all of mine

Mine too and practically everyone else's on our site 

[chillimummy]

Picked couple of sweetcorn few weeks ago and nice but pale and small.
Picked some more today and bigger but still pale and def look like they need to fill out more.
Hoping for sunny October to ripen them and rest of my tomatoes!