[Ivor Backache]

   I am in planning mode and this year I shall try sweetcorn for the first time.  Done a search and there is masses of good information. One thing I must do is plant in square formation-not rows. Another fact is that it can be grown amongst other crops.
   I am thinking of growing it between main crop potatoes. They can be left in the ground and I won't disturb the sweetcorn. I can increase the distance between the potato rows.
   In june when the potatoes are in full leaf I will be planting out the sweetcorn. It grows fast and in the night and over the following weeks the sweetcorn will be above the potatoes which will now start to die down.
   They are hungry feeders and need watering= I can deal with that. But I have never seen this done. Am I missing something or can it be made to work. I would appreciate any comments. Thank you.

[Yorkie]

To be honest I cannot see it working.

They are both hungry and thirsty plants.  The potatoes will have a head start over the sweetcorn and will win that battle.  I would also think that the sweetcorn will suffer from the shade cast by the potato leaves - mine does not romp away as you anticipate.

I interplant mine with squash and courgette, which happily grow underneath and do not compete for light.

[DD.]

I don't think it will work.

I think you're underestimating how fast the spuds grow and over estimating how fast the sweetcorn grows. It tends to sit there for a long time until it gets really warm, by which time the spuds have taken up the extra space you've kindly given to them.

Also it's generally accepted that you may be able to grow other crops in between the corn, (e.g. three sisters), not vice versa.

[DD.]

I think we generally said the same thing there!

[gobs]

  I am in planning mode and this year I shall try sweetcorn for the first time.  Done a search and there is masses of good information. One thing I must do is plant in square formation-not rows. Another fact is that it can be grown amongst other crops.
   I am thinking of growing it between main crop potatoes. They can be left in the ground and I won't disturb the sweetcorn. I can increase the distance between the potato rows.
   In june when the potatoes are in full leaf I will be planting out the sweetcorn. It grows fast and in the night and over the following weeks the sweetcorn will be above the potatoes which will now start to die down.
   They are hungry feeders and need watering= I can deal with that. But I have never seen this done. Am I missing something or can it be made to work. I would appreciate any comments. Thank you.

No so. Earlies finish by then, lates will finish in autumn. How are you going to earth up your pots with corns in between?

[mumofstig]

I think you will be planting the sweetcorn just when the potatoes are being earthed up to prevent greening   If you are planting between spud rows the corn will surely be further apart than is ideal for wind pollination, they won't be in a block will they just in rows

You sound as if you have the space so - Instead of planting the potatoes further apart, plant the sweetcorn in a block in the space you've saved by using normal spud planting distance.

 

[DD.]

I think the only thing you can get away with planting in bewteen spuds is radish. And only once inthe season, but who wants all those radish in one go? 

[gobs]

Nice save, Sir. You could publish a forum dictionary.

[DD.]

There is one, but I don't think it translates very well into Hungarian. 

However, your English is far better than my Hungarian.

Mr Google, if he's to be relied on, says that "Golyó" in that context is a no-no!

[Ivor Backache]

  Thank you everybody for your quick responses. Clearly a daft idea but that's the beauty of this site, with good advice backed up with reason.
I haven't got a lot of spare space. The area in mind would be the same as a double row of broad bean. I take it that a square formation is better than a double row?
  I am thinking of the pollination:- Is it better to grow the whole crop at once and freeze or stagger over a period of weeks? I am looking at 4 rows of say 7 plants.

[DD.]

Don't stagger, in my opinion, best to let the block mature at the same time and freeze. The less that mature at once, the less likely pollination is.

[mumofstig]

I like to sow 2 or 3 late plants to help pollinate any late cobs that grow on the tillers or lower on the stems.

[DD.]

You bother with the tillers? 

[mumofstig]

Yes, in a good year there will be some late cobs worth picking 

[JayG]

I like to sow 2 or 3 late plants to help pollinate any late cobs that grow on the tillers or lower on the stems.

I sowed mine in two batches about 2 weeks apart and planted the second block next to, but upwind of, the first block, for exactly the same reason.

In a good summer it should help, but last year it was difficult to tell - the second block actually outgrew and out-cobbed ( ) the first, presumably because they had the best of the warmth and weather and didn't get checked.

Will try the same technique this year, because it can't do any harm and if nothing else slightly extends the cropping season.