How to Grow Sweet Corn
Fresh sweet corn is a real treat and if you can grow your own, then you will experience the best tasting sweet corn you can imagine.
And yes you can grow sweet corn in the home garden it just requires, sun and frequent watering if you are to have a successful crop, and keep the garden bed well weeded.
You can buy seeds at most nurseries, and organic seeds from online suppliers and even at good organic vegetable shops. Read on and we will tell you all you need to know about how to growing sweet corn.
Care and Planting
Sweet corn is easily grown from seed, so its cheap to grow. We suggest sowing directly into the garden and thinning out after the plants germinate. If you want to get an early stat then certainly sow in trays in the hothouse if you wish.
The best time to plant seeds is around the end of winter to early spring, just when things warm up a little, so August – September.
In the garden we sow seeds around 10 cm apart and then thin to around 20cm as they germinate, this allows for a few failures. It seems fairly close for such a big plant, however this close planting is essential for pollination.A humus rich well dug soil is best and try planting around 2 – 3 cm deep.
In summary
- prepare the soil by digging in aged compost, and aged animal manure, some blood and bone as well
- plant the sweet corn seed in rows 40 – 50 cm apart and seeds every 10cm (remember we are going to thin later)
- water in well and leave to germinate, do not over water when they are at the germination stage or seeds may rot.
- thin out
- keep moist
- fertilize with a seaweed fertilizer
- harvest around 3 months after planting
Species and varieties
Simply lots of them, Max, Legacy, Jubilee Bicolor, Golden Supreme, Red Aztec, Popcorn and even black.
The Purple Sweet Corn is the interesting variety, it tastes almost the same as yellow sweet corn however the pigments that give it its purple colour have been linked to improved cardiovascular health.
How many cobs from a sweet corm plant ? Usually 2, except for ‘babycorn’ varieties that may give up to 10, and early maturing varieties that may give only one.