[Salmo]

I am growing Swift which is a short variety and it is romping away. Almost every plant is producing a tiller from the bottom.

Will these tillers produce extra cobs or are they best removed to put all the energy into the main stem?

[JayG]

In theory they could; I've seen a very rudimentary tassel on one of them (but not often!)

In practice given recent summers it's hard to get even the main stem to reach its full potential never mind the tillers.

I leave them on; doesn't seem to make much difference either way (I like to think that if nothing else it's adding something to the strength of the roots and main stem rather than detracting from the overall strength of the plant.)

[DD.]

This crops up annually. (Sorry about the double pun).

The general consensus appears to be that whilst you may only get a few kernels that are really not worthwhile, it's also not worth the bother of taking them off and risking damaging the plant.

[Springlands]

I did not realise that those off shoots even had a name - so have learnt something new.    I do not remove mine either.