Sweetcorn is one of the best vegetables to grow for yourself. Sweetcorn tastes so much more juicer, sweet and fresh when you harvest from your garden compared with the corn on the cobs from supermarkets.

Difficulty Growing Level: Easy

Sweetcorn is surprisingly easy to grow because they do not need much attention.

Recap on Sowing Sweetcorn

Sow: April – in root trainer long pots, as they don’t like root disturbance. Germination needs temperatures of at least 21 degrees centigrade.

Some sweetcorn seeds will need soaking in water for a few hours before sowing into compost.

Sow: May – Sow direct into the ground outside. The Germination rate is better when sweetcorn is sowed in pots or root trainers.

Is June too late to sow seeds? Yes, try buying plants from your local garden centre or buy sweetcorn plants online.

Harvest: August for early varieties and September to October for later varieties.

How many Cobs will I get from each plant? A minimum of 2 cobs, if pollination has occurred correctly. Depending on how tall the plants are you may get more like 3 or 4 cobs, if you are lucky.

Varieties to try: Goldcrest F1, Golden Nugget, Swift F1, Golden Gate, Earlibird, Alliance,

How do I know when my Sweetcorn Plants are ready to plant outside?

• When the long leaves above the soil are between 8 and 15 cm long.
• It should be around Late May to June, when all risk of frost has passed. Then it is fine to plant them outside.

How to Plant Sweetcorn outside in a Raised Bed

You will need:

• Sweetcorn plants (at least 9, to grow in a block of 3 rows of 3 plants.)
• A trowel,
• Watering can with water in.

How to Plant Sweetcorn in a Raised Bed Video

https://videopress.com/v/fhXnIbez?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

• 1. Prepare the ground before planting out by adding multi purpose compost to the soil to give the sweetcorn enough nutrients to grow.
• 2. Count the number of Sweetcorn plants you have to plant.
• 2. Mark out a grid / block pattern in rows with a trowel of where the plants will be planted. I plant my sweetcorn plants at approx 20cm apart.
• Dig holes with your trowel for the plants.
• Gently lift the sweetcorn plants out of their pots or root trainers so as to not disturb the roots too much and plant one plant into the hole.
• Move the surrounding soil back into the hole and firm gently to keep the plants upright in the soil.
• Repeat until all your sweetcorn plants are in the ground.
• Water well.

Sweetcorn Growing Advice worth knowing:

1. Pollination

Sweetcorn loves the Wind

Sweetcorn is pollinated by the Wind. Sweetcorn is grown in a grid for this reason. The plants will sway backwards and forwards into one another and release pollen from the tassels at the top of the plant onto the leaves or silks further down the plant stalk.

🌽 Top Fact ⭐️ – For Sweetcorn to be pollinated, at least one grain of pollen from the tassels at the top of the plant, has to land on the silks which are the tassels on the top of the corn ear, for one tiny corn seed to be produced on the cob.

As you can see, it is important to make sure the pollination happens, otherwise you will not have fully formed cobs when it comes to harvest.

2. No Support Required

Sweetcorn can grow to 1 to 2 meters high but the stems grow very thick so they can hold the plant up. There is no extra support required.

3. Watering in Dry Weather

Sweetcorn plants do not like dry soil especially when the cobs start forming. Water plants in dry hot weather.

4. Vegetables to Grow with Sweetcorn

Salad crops like lettuce, radish and spinach can be grown underneath sweetcorn.

Squash and Pumpkins can also be grown amongst Sweetcorn. I’ll be planting my pumpkins in this raised bed in a few weeks time.

Sunflowers also like being grown with sweetcorn.

5. Sweetcorn Pests

Animals like birds, mice, rats and squirrels like Sweetcorn. It’s best to sow seeds in pots or root trainers and not directly in the ground if you have problems with these animals already.

Slugs and Snails like the tender young plants. So check for slug trails near the plants after planting out, so as to remove them before your plants get eaten.

What’s Next

🌽 And Finally we have Sweetcorn to Harvest – Tips on how to Harvest your Sweetcorn.