[brianc]

Hi all,
Can anybody tell me if it is possible to grow the small sweetcorn that you buy in the supermarkets?
if so how?.
                Thankyou.

[Nobbie]

Yes,

But you've got to buy the right variety, standard sweetcorn won't produce many cobs. From memory, I think minipop is such a variety.

[beaker141]

I grew minipop last year.

I had 20 plants in a 5x4 block and they grew bigger than neighboring plots normal sweetcorn - I harvested a couple but they were already bigger than what you'd get in the supermarket and I took my eye off the ball and then had lots of really big minicorn !

Overall I wont bother with them again.

[mumofstig]

I always remove the flowering top of the sweetcorn, to prevent pollination, and cut the cobs just as the silks appear - before the cobs grow too big.

and yes, Mini pop is the variety you need 

https://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/How_To_Harvest_Sweetcorn__Babycorn_Video/

[New shoot]

I do the same as MoS - cut the male flowers off as they appear and pick when the silks start appearing. 

The up side to mini pop is that although the plants get tall, you can cram them in quite closely.   If you keep picking, you get quite a few mini cobs per plant.  They also stay sweet if you store them in a plastic bag in the bottom of the fridge, so you can pick over a few days and get lots to cook with.

This year, I am planning a bigger patch of them as we liked them so much 

[3759allen]

i found them a lot of work for not a huge amount of crop. you really need to keep an eye on them and get them when they're small enough. i found it hard to get them before they went too big.

don't think i'll be doing mini again.

[Potty Plotty Lotty]

I do like minipops. They taste fab and I them find easy to grow and as others have said you can cram them in. I sow every two weeks from mid-April until around the end of May. Last year I grew them between rows of mangetout/sugar snap peas

You do have to remember to harvest them before you think they are ready! I'm going to try and go by New Shoot's advise about looking for the silks to start appearing.

[neatntidy]

Mini pop is my fav allotment veg. Always do well every year and they are expensive to buy in the shops. Block looks impressive. I start mine off in loo roll tubes then plant out with 2ltr pop bottle cloches and cut the neck of bottle once plant has settled in. Chicken manure pellets early on and comfrey feed towards end. As other have said timing is everything, catch em early otherwise they go woody.