Find out the best tips and advice from The Yorkshire Gardener on how to grow sweetcorn.
About Sweetcorn
Nothing can beat growing your own sweetcorn, this is because as soon as it is picked it starts to lose it’s flavor so the quicker you boil and eat after picking the better it tastes. Growing your own sweetcorn will beat shop bought corn on the cob.
Recommended varieties of Sweetcorn
There are many types of sweetcorn that you can pick. The two that stand out the most are:-
- Lark AGM
- Swift AGM
Choosing the best spot to grow Sweetcorn
Sweetcorn is not a fussy plant when choosing the right soil to grow it in. As long as fertiliser has been added to the soil you should get great results. The soil needs to be well drained and in a sunny position.
Sowing Sweetcorn
When you come to sowing your sweetcorn you will be able to get the children involved as the seeds are large enough to handle. In fact the seeds are the sweetcorn.
Sow the seeds in individual pots to avoid root disturbance when growing them as they can be quite temperamental. When you are sowing your seeds you need to think about how many you want to grow as you need to grow sweetcorn in blocks. You will get between 2-4 cobs per plant.
Growing Sweetcorn
When the sweetcorn has germinated and are large enough to transplant and the frost has passed you can plant these outdoors. The plants need to be planted in at least blocks of four so that when the wind blows they will pollinate each other. The plants need to be at least 40 cm apart from each other.
Looking after your Sweetcorn plants
Sweetcorn are very easy to look after with little care and attention needed. The plants need to be kept weed free and watered while the kernals are growing to help them swell.
Harvesting Sweetcorn
As sweetcorn are covered with leaves it’s hard to tell when they are ready to pick. The best way to know they are close to picking is by looking at the tassles on the end of the cob, they will turn from white to brown. You can then peel back the leaves to check the corn and you will be able to see if the corn is pale yellow this will be when they are ready to pick.
