[Kirpi]

I guess my sweetcorn has not been pollinated - see the photo attached.

The cob was fat and the tassles had turned brown so my hoped were high. Other cobs have not put on weight yet and I am getting anxious for any harvest of of this crop.

Other factors:
I interpanted the sweetcorn with french beans and have a couple of Butternut Squash at the bed ends which I have trained throught the bed. The BNS are planted about three feet away from any sweetcorn so I don't think it is the BNS.

My plan was the french beans would fix nitrogen at their roots which could be used by the sweetcorn and growth of the plant seems to be ok.

The only thing I can think is the sweetcorn has been fixed in position by the climbing beans so they have not swayed about as much as if they were planted on their own so cross pollination may have been reduced.

They are growing in a block of three by eight so that should be ok.

Any ideas and advice as to what I can do to get any kind of harvest this year?

I won't do Three Sisters again!

The photo is blurred but it shows 4 full kernels and the rest are still tiny.

Edited to add comment: could it be that the rain has washed the male pollen down on the soil and none has been caught in the wind to cross-pollinate?

[mumofstig]

I should think that the leaves of the beans acted as a physical barrier to the falling pollen, or else it was wet at the time the pollen was being released.

Do you mean the silks at the top of the cobs had turned brown, or the tassels at the top of the plant that drop the pollen?

[Kirpi]

Ahh - I mean the silks at the tops of the cobs were brown before I picked them.

Do you suppose it would be too late to strip out the beans to see what happens? I have plenty of beans so no loss there and I would rather have sweetcorn out of this bed.  However, if the pollen has already flown I may as well stick with the beans.

I could unwind them and rewind onto canes away from the sweetcorn and hope for the best.

I think the beans asting as a physical barrier to pollen is plausible.

[DD.]

It's way too late for sweetcorn to be pollinated now.

[Kirpi]

something to remember for next year then - sweetcorn need to stand together as a block with no interplanting. I guess the Butternut Squash is ok as it is planted away from the block and trained through the foot of the block and won't climb or shade out the sweetcorn stems.

The object is to provide a mulch to the sweetcorn bed to keep moisture and to have one bed area provide more than one crop in limited space. I definitely won't plant climbing beans in the same bed again.

[TerryB]

Hi Kirpi
I wouldn't blame the beans, I have the same problem and didn't grow beans up them.
I think its more to do with the high winds and rain.
We have a second batch to come which was plant only a foot apart and not the 18ins advised, so I'm hoping these will be better.

[Diddy Gardener]

Well, my sweetcorn stopped growing when it was a foot high - do have the start of a tassel on one of them though... fat lot of use that is 

[jamima]

I gave up growing sweetcorn 2 years ago ,they dont like the cold wind or cold nights so go and buy it now.

[sunshineband]

something to remember for next year then - sweetcorn need to stand together as a block with no interplanting. I guess the Butternut Squash is ok as it is planted away from the block and trained through the foot of the block and won't climb or shade out the sweetcorn stems.

The object is to provide a mulch to the sweetcorn bed to keep moisture and to have one bed area provide more than one crop in limited space. I definitely won't plant climbing beans in the same bed again.

Kirpi, I grow my sweetcorn underplanted by rambling squash leaves, but do not plant them right within the block

Also, as soon as the top male tassels open with pollen, I stroke these over and then run my hand over the lower female tassels to help pollination. I water them well, in case the leaves of the squashes prevent rain reaching the ground

Seems to work OK

[Kirpi]

Ihanks Sunshineband for the helping hand tip - I'll try that next year.

I may try interplanting with Dwarf French Beans which will not climb the sweetcorn. I notice some of the tassles were wound around with the climbing beans so that would have prevented pollination on some of the plants.

[sunshineband]

Ihanks Sunshineband for the helping hand tip - I'll try that next year.

I may try interplanting with Dwarf French Beans which will not climb the sweetcorn. I notice some of the tassles were wound around with the climbing beans so that would have prevented pollination on some of the plants.

You need to plant the sweetcorn plants about 15 ins apart, which probably leaves little root space for beans in there as well.

Despite common belief, the small amount of nitrogen 'set' by pea and bean roots is for their own use, rather than feeding other crops. better to give the corn a good dose of chicken manure pellets as far as I can see 

[Kirpi]

Funny - we were having the same conversation about beans fixing nitrogen and whether any of this could be passed onto neighbouring plants and I decided I agree that the nitrogen cannot benefit another plant until the nitrogen fixing plant is hoed off, leaving the roots in the soil.

I think you are right. Next year I will grow sweetcorn in it's own stand and plant Butternut Squash offside and train the tendrils through the bed.

The other thing I will do is plant the sweetcorn on this year's peas and beans bed so they can benefit from the previous year's nitrogen, which should still be present in the soil according to theory. I guess I could also so an over-winter green manure like Winter Tares to increase the nitrogen even more.

[mumofstig]

I don't apologise for linking to this again, re: supposed nitrogen gain from legume roots 

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=98117.msg1088647#msg1088647

[Kirpi]

Thank you mumofstig. When the beans and peas are done, I put a level of home made compost straight on top of the entire legume plant, roots stems and leaves so that's an increase in nitrogen. 

[Goosegirl]

I may try interplanting with Dwarf French Beans which will not climb the sweetcorn. I notice some of the tassles were wound around with the climbing beans so that would have prevented pollination on some of the plants.
[/quote]
That's what I did this year with my "Swift" corn. Eight corn plants were planted in two blocks of four in the g'house, with some dwarf French beans between them. All has been successful, as I have harvested FB for about 2 months now, and planted some more seeds of them further back in the bed as a further crop. My corn reached the top of the g'house, and I tapped the stalks when the tassels showed to get pollination going. I have just harvested my first corn to be eaten very soon - deepjoy!  I have 3 more corn plants outside which have caught up remarkably well, so hope to have even more!