[scabs]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the advice on this; I put mine in a dark cupboard (unheated) to chit and, to be honest, forgot about them until yesterday.

100% germination! I put all 30 in root trainers yesterday morning and this morning about a quarter of them have alread broken the surface! Amazing!

I can't remember the name of the lovely lady who gave me the seeds, but a massive thank you! I shall certainly be stocking up on F1 Swifts from Moles for next season! 

[DD.]

You can never have too much sweetcorn!

I think the cats (or whatever as I have no proof!), destroyed about 20 of mine. I've compensated by chitting another 60.

I actually ended up chitting 72 as I threw a few in for luck. 71 made it, so I'm quite happy.

[Oliver]

And the chits go......?

That is fast DD, is it because you rolled them in paprika?

yeah DD, why are they that colour?

They are a 'funny' colour because they are coated with a dye. To ensure they are used as seedstock and not as a foodstuff?
My Indian Heritage are greeny yellow, and my Wilda's Pride are pink.
Oliver

[DD.]

Think you missed the answer Oliver. It's a fungal inhibitor.

[Kristen]

"It's a fungal inhibitor."

Which they rather grandly call a "germination enhancer" - yeah, stops it rotting before it germinates!

Poisonous too - wash hands after sowing chaps!

[scabs]

Good grief, sweetcorn grows fast! 

2" in less than a week, is that normal?

[HelenK]

It's amazing isn't it, one of mine grew over an inch just yesterday!

[scabs]

It's a first for me and I'm absolutely gobsmacked! 

Fantastic though!

[Kristen]

"Good grief, sweetcorn grows fast!
2" in less than a week, is that normal?"

Yup ... bit of a mixed blessing if the seeds has been planted too early - as I did this year

I sowed (in apper pots) on 1st April thinking they would "hold" until 1st June, and have a full month's start on a crop sown outdoors. I had to plant them out on 5th May because they were over a foot high and had rooted right through the pots

So I sowed some more on 9th May in case the first lot get kiboshed by a frost ...

(My 1st June date is a, hopefully, suitable pessimistic date for last frost. In practice here the last frost has been 1st or 2nd week of May, but notwithstanding that the nights are not that warm in May, so the plants are going to get off to a slower start.

It will be interesting to compare when the two sowings start harvesting

[ziggy66]

I sowed a block of sweetcorn 4 ft x 16ft three weeks ago and nothing has shown yet. 

Is this a dead duck?
Is it too late to sow afresh?
If not too late, how do you chit sweetcorn - having read this thread I am still not entirely clear?

One last question ...... An old timer down the allotment told me not to mix types of sweetcorn if they were F1 varieties He said they would cross pollinate and the cobs would be bitter. Is this correct?

Sorry for all the questions but I am a newbie to allotmenteering and had set my heart on some home grown bbq'd sweetcorn this year. 

Thanks

Tim

[Eatyourgreens]

F1 Hybrids are specifically crossed plants, chosen to produce a particular offspring for a specific purpose (Normally a bigger, better product), it is not a good idea to keep seeds from F1's because any seeds if it is fertile (Not all F1's are) will not have the characteristic of the parent plant, they could even be really poor, don't forget the original parents were not chosen because they were good, but gave good offspring.

The best example would be how cattle is often bred.

You would typically breed something like a Hereford Bull (Hereford's are beef cattle) with maybe a Fresian cow (Fresian's are a dairy cow that need to give birth each year to continue to give milk) and the resultant offspring make up an animal that is much more useful for meat than a straight bred Fresian, but you would not use this offspring for milk production or to breed with for more beef cattle, as they could be very poor animals.

Hope that makes sense.


Bob

[richyrich7]

Tim to chit sweetcorn you'll need an ice cream tub or similar and a couple of sheets of kitchen towel.
Line the bottom of the tub with the paper, dampen the paper so it's moist but not soaking wet, then place your corn spread out evenly on the damp towel. put the lid back on and keep in a warmish place not hot, check every day they chit quick !. Once the white root is about 2cm long then pot up carefully into3" pots or paper pots. Easy as that 

The reason you don't mix sweet corn F1's is the flavour is altered if the two different types of corn cross pollinate, it's nothing to do with keeping seed for next year in this instance. The pollen affects the flavour. There's a few sweetcorn F1's on the market now that are not affected by this issue but not many, it's generally though best to keep them well apart.

Hope this helps

[Bozwell]

Anyone fancy taking some sweet corn pic's and up load them to compare with.
Mine are still hangin on in there looking very sorry for them selves and don't even look like putting growth on.

[richyrich7]

Bear with me I'll go take one now 

There you go :

two separate varieties sown two weeks apart, the one in pots are from T&M can't remember the name they where sown 1st, and the ones that are in paper pots are Excalibur from moles seeds.

 

[Bozwell]

Cheers  richyrich your corn looks a bit healthier than mine. Though in my ignorance never growning sweet corn before I was expecting them to be more darker green in colour.