Is there anything better than fresh sweet corn on a hot summer&#;s day? (Well, maybe fresh-picked watermelon.) While I didn&#;t always grow sweet corn, once I started, it quickly became a family favorite and has earned a staple spot in my garden.
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Getting corn to a full harvest sometimes presents challenges. Whether you are considering making room for corn in your garden or you&#;ve been growing it for years, it helps to know what troubles await and how to deal with them ahead of time.
On the most recent episode of the Beginner&#;s Garden Podcast and the article below, learn the most common problems home gardeners have with growing corn. Listen to that here or keep reading.
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One of the biggest mistakes you can make in growing corn is simply not planting enough.
Corn is wind-pollinated and each kernel must be individually pollinated in order for it to develop. This requires devoting more space to corn than a beginning gardener usually realizes. At a minimum, you want to plant four rows of corn, though the more the better. I get my best pollination in plots that are 4&#; x 25&#; long.
You also want to devote enough space to corn for a different reason. Each corn plant only produces one large ear. In the best of seasons and with ideal conditions, you may get a second smaller ear to develop after the large ear, but this isn&#;t always the case and shouldn&#;t be counted on.
If you have a small garden, it can be hard to add corn to your garden plan, as the space required for successful growth is large compared to other crops. It is something you have to really think about and weigh the advantages and disadvantages to adding it to your garden.
Most gardeners sow corn seeds directly into the garden. If the soil temperature is warm enough (65F minimum), corn germinates quickly and uniformly. But if you notice that your sprouts lack consistency, there could be a few reasons.
The most common reason for spotty germination for my corn plantings is that the birds love corn. They&#;ll steal seeds and sprouts in short order! Sometimes I sow extra corn to offset the snacks the birds feast on. But there are other options.
You can add a string 6 to 12 inches above the ground between two stakes from the start of your row planting to the end. This deters our feathery friends from getting to the seedlings.
You can also start seeds ahead of time indoors, in a greenhouse, or even outside in seed trays. Then, when the sprouts are 4-6&#; high, they can be transplanted into the garden. This allows them to be planted at the correct spacing (9-12&#; apart) and usually the sprouts are large enough that the birds don&#;t bother them.
Supersweet types of corn, unfortunately, don&#;t germinate as well as others. That&#;s something to keep in mind. If that&#;s your preference, just plant more to combat the germination risk.
In the early spring, make sure you plant when the soil is warm enough &#; a minimum of 65F. Also, don&#;t plant too deep, since the warmer soil will be toward the surface in the early part of the season. Planting corn seeds at a depth of one-half inch will aid in quick germination.
As the season progresses, you may want to plant a succession planting of corn. For a mid-summer planting of corn when the weather is hot and rain is sparse, plant the corn seeds at a depth of one inch. This will help keep the corn seeds and sprouts from dying out before a strong, deep root is established.
If your corn seeds sprouted well, but they are struggling to grow, it could be an issue with the soil, nutrients, or water &#; or a combination of any of these. Let&#;s explore what can go wrong when corn is growing in our gardens.
Corn, like other vegetables, thrives in loose, friable soil. If the soil is compacted, the seedlings struggle to get established. Corn has a deep, expansive root system, and compacted soil will hinder its growth underground, which you may see also aboveground.
Like other garden vegetables, corn will grow best when the pH is optimal for its growth. It actually tolerates a fairly wide range &#; anywhere from 5.8 to 7.0 is desirable, but outside those parameters, it may struggle. If you suspect a pH problem, I recommend a soil test.
Corn is a heavy feeder of all nutrients but particularly nitrogen. Make sure you add compost and an extra nitrogen source prior to planting. I like to use my composted manure from my chickens or Garden Tone.
Another way to naturally add nitrogen to your soil is to plant legumes (like beans or peas) in the same space both prior to and along with your corn plantings.
When the corn reaches about 18 inches in height, feed them again with nitrogen-rich fertilizer. For an organic gardener, you may choose a slow-release granular fertilizer like blood meal or a liquid option like fish emulsion.
Just like corn loves nitrogen, it loves water just as much. Make sure the soil stays moist during its entire growth, but this is of utmost importance from the time your corn has tassels forming through harvest.
In my garden, corn usually begins to develop its tassels during our driest spells. If you find this to be the case as well, make sure you keep watering. I prefer to use drip irrigation set on a timer to water every couple of days.
If your corn is fighting weeds in an area, the weeds can also rob the corn&#;s water supply. It&#;s best to make sure your corn area stays free of weeds as much as possible to help keep that soil moist below. A thick layer of mulch will go a long way here for both weed suppression and water retention.
Just when your corn starts to tower in your garden, strong winds can knock over even the tallest corn stalks. If you live in an area where the wind is common, you may want to consider running a string up between t-posts to help support those plants as they grow.
You can also companion plant with pole beans, which will help the root structure become a little more stable underneath the soil. The root systems of the beans planted around the corn helps anchor the corn stalks.
You&#;ve made it! The corn is ready to harvest. Sadly, this is the area where I&#;ve struggled the most. Here are a few things that can go wrong when harvest time comes.
A super common mistake with harvesting is the timing of when you harvest. Start looking to harvest about 20 days after your silks appear. The silk is located at the tips of each ear.
Fresh silk emerging from corn cob &#; pollination is beginning.From here, you want to watch for the silks to turn brown and dry out completely. They will slough off easily.
dried out silk on corn cob &#; pollination is complete.The corn will also start to bend away from the main stalk as it nears maturity.
Once you observe these signs, you can test an ear by peeling down the leaves at the tip of the husk about half-way to expose the kernels in the middle of the ear. Now, you&#;ll use your thumbnail to prick one kernel.
If a milky white fluid comes out, this is the perfect time to harvest. If the liquid is clear, this means that your corn is not quite ready. Lastly, if you prick the ear and a thick, gum-like texture emerges, it means your corn is past its prime and you&#;re best feeding these to the birds (or chickens).
In my first year, I lost my entire harvest because I waited too long to harvest. The ideal window is very short (as in a few days). So, make sure you are watching your silks. If they start to brown and they are dry, this is when your ideal harvest will be. In the video below, I demonstrate when corn is ready to harvest:
If you go to harvest your corn and you notice that the ears are smaller than expected, or worse, they are large but many of the kernels haven&#;t formed, there are a number of reasons this could have happened.
One of the reasons is what we mentioned above &#; not planting enough for complete pollination. Because each individual kernel has to be pollinated, this requires a lot of pollen to fall to ensure that this happens.
If weather conditions are hot and dry while your corn is growing, you may find that the tops of your ears are not completely pollinated, while the rest of the ear looks fine. In this case, chances are it&#;s the weather. With limited resources, the plant focuses on pollinating the middle and bottom kernels first, leaving the top ones for last. There&#;s not much that can be done about that besides making sure you water well.
One reason for small is that you planted the corn too close together. Their ideal distance for pollination is between 9 and 12 inches apart. When they are crowded together closer than this, resources in the soil (both water and nutritional) can&#;t supply all of the plants.
If you find that you&#;ve done every single thing right and the corn ears still didn&#;t reach their potential, the problem could be a potassium deficiency. Again, a soil test can easily inform you if this is a problem and you can correct it before your next planting.
You&#;ve harvested all your corn and you&#;re now ready to move on to shucking the corn. You start to peel just to discover that there&#;s a live little worm inside! Is it gross? Yes. Does it happen often? Yes. Unfortunately, these little worms love corn as much as we do!
Corn earworm problems begin when the moth lays eggs on the silks at night. Then they develop into worms and crawl inside the husk and start eating the corn kernels.
What can you do about the corn earworm? Personally, I just break off the tip (worm included) and feed them to my chickens and then go on about my harvest as normal.
If you find that earworms are more problematic than you want to deal with, check the variety that you plant and see if you can find one more resistance to the earworms. Some varieties have tighter tips, which deter earworm damage more.
You can also test different planting times. From my research, I&#;ve learned that earlier spring plantings are not as affected, generally, though, in my garden, the late summer plantings with September harvests have been the best times for me.
Test different planting times and different varieties to see if you can find a ideal planting time for your climate and a variety that is more resistant.
My hope is that this article has prepared you for what to expect when growing corn. As we conclude, I wanted to share some other thoughts regarding growing corn in your garden &#; or not.
First, consider planting corn as a succession crop. If you have a long growing season, you could plant several plantings. Sometimes I plant one in April, one in June, and one in July.
You could also plant later in the summer after a cool weather crop has harvested, in that same space. Corn is a great succession crop to plant after peas, for example.
Also, try growing different varieties. If one doesn&#;t work for you, there are many others to consider.
Lastly, consider if it&#;s worth your space. If you have a smaller garden, but you really love sweet corn, visit your local farmers market. This is the ideal place to get that sweet corn craving satisfied while supporting your local friends and farmers.
No matter if you&#;re new to growing corn or if you&#;re a seasoned gardener, hopefully, you&#;ve learned something that will benefit your next harvest.
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This was my first ever homegrown cob. It was Conqueror which is a hybrid but tasted fantastic fresh and barbecued
Sweetcorn tastes best when eaten as soon as it&#;s picked and the only way you can enjoy that fresh, super-sweet taste is to grow sweetcorn at home.
In this article, I&#;ll walk through every step you need to take to grow your own corn &#; from sowing seeds and what varieties to pick all the way down to details such as where to grow your plants and the optimum layout and spacing to maximise yield.
If you have any questions, leave a comment and I&#;ll get back to you!
The best time to start growing sweetcorn is around your last frost date as cobs can take 2 to 4 months to form and ripen, depending on the variety & conditions. Sweetcorn is a tender annual that can&#;t be exposed to frost so it&#;s best to plant early, especially if your growing season is short.
Sweetcorn growing timeline for fresh and dried corn. For direct sowing, follow the transplant timings.The best month to direct sow sweetcorn outdoors in the UK is usually May or June but check your last frost date in your area and wait until it has passed. If you sow indoors, then you can sow sweetcorn seeds up to four weeks earlier.
There is a seemingly endless selection of sweetcorn varieties out there. This is my &#;must-grow&#; list, filled with varieties that I want to grow which contains personal recommendations or varieties that I was impressed with before and will definitely grow again.
Sweetcorn can be hit-or-miss when it comes to germination outside. Therefore starting plants indoors can be a very useful step for those who want a head start and get an early harvest, or those who want to save money on seeds. It also stops mice digging up the kernels before they can sprout.
I prefer to place my sweetcorn in between two layers of wet paper towels in a sealed container and allow the seeds to soak up the water and germinate. Check them each day and as soon as you see a root, plant each seed in 3 inch pot. The stem will appear and grow perpendicular to the ground shortly after the root emerges so it&#;s important to get the seed&#;s orientation right early on.
I prefer to germinate sweetcorn seeds in a controlled environment using a wet paper towel and left for a few days in a warm spotAlternatively you can sow seeds into pots at a 2.5cm (1 inch) depth from the surface and avoid all the fuss. If the soil is loose and the conditions are warm and moist, you should still get good germination, although poor quality, dense and cold seed composts may see lower rates. You can a propagator or cling film to keep the moisture in. Otherwise, make sure the pot doesn&#;t completely dry out.
Germination should take anywhere from 3 &#; 10 days depending on the variety, the amount of moisture in the container and the temperature. If you&#;ve got a sunny windowsill or an airing cupboard, use it to speed up the process.
This one was a little older, maybe six weeks, which is probably as long as you want to leave seedlings in their pots2 to 3 weeks after planting, the sweetcorn seedlings should be large enough to transplant into the ground. Wet the container so the soil isn&#;t loose, use a dibber to make a hole in the ground and then transfer the sweetcorn by tipping the pot upside down with the plant stem going through your fingers. Lift away the pot, invert the plant and the soil and gently place it in the hole and try to firm it in as much as you can. If you can avoid it, try not to disturb the roots.
Sweetcorn doesn&#;t like having its roots disturbed so many people prefer to direct sow sweetcorn and let it grow outdoors from start to finish. Plant seeds 2.5cm or 1 inch below the surface and cover with compost.
You may need to sow multiple seeds &#; two or three per hole &#; to account for lower germination rates outdoors, which vary with temperature. Sweetcorn needs the soil to be warm for the seeds to germinate so it can sometimes be better to wait until June.
While direct sowing is the easiest option, be prepared to replace any seeds that get dug up or disturbed by mice or knocked over by birds. And be on the lookout for hungry slugs and snails who will happily feast on your young plants.
It&#;s also really important that you take the time to get the correct spacing between plants, otherwise you might end up with incomplete pollination or even completely empty cobs&#;
Sweetcorn is wind pollinated. The tassels at the very top are the male part of the plant and release pollen which should land on the silks that protrude from the wrapped empty cobs (which are called &#;ears&#;) below. If the plants grow too far apart then the probability that all of the silks are fertilised drops and, unfortunately, silks that do not get fertilised do not grow into the fleshy tasty kernels we want to grow. Instead you get cobs of corn with gaps in them and therefore less sweetcorn.
To get full cobs of sweetcorn, it&#;s essential that you plant in blocks and not in straight rows to ensure that plants are surrounded by a neighbour and it&#;s important that you plant them the right distance apart. The recommended spacing is 35 to 45cm (14-18 inches) but it varies by climate, soil, variety and nutrient availability.
Researchers tend to find denser plantings produce higher yields in commercial settings with 9 plants per square metre (55cm rows with 20cm spacing) being optimal in this Iranian study and 7.4 plants per square metre (70cm rows with 20cm spacing in an organic setting in Indonesia &#; although they didn&#;t test narrower rows). While this paper studying hybrid plants in Illinois, would suggest 6.1 to 8.7 sweetcorn plants per square metre is optimal.
A square grid of sweetcorn with 35cm spacing is broadly optimal for commercial hybrids at a planting density of 8 plants per square metre but you could consider widening the grid if growing less vigorous or traditional varieties or if your soil is poor.
A square grid and a hexagonal grid of sweetcorn. All lines are of equal length. See how the field is narrower in the hexagonal arrangement. You can fit more plants in using a hexagonal arrangement.This year I will also be doing a side-by-side comparison between a regular square grid and a hexagonal grid. This trick of geometry (thanks Pythagoras) allows you to either pack more plants into a given area and improve pollination or you can keep the density the same as a square grid but place plants a little further apart if you are concerned about competition for resources e.g. if plants are too close, they will compete for light. Mathematically speaking, a hexagonal planting scheme at 9.2 plants per square metre (or 1.15 times greater than the ideal square grid planting) should be optimal.
Too much shade can significantly limit the growth of sweetcorn plants, especially early in the season and while the plant is young. A lack of sun and heat will also delay ripening of the cobs. It&#;s therefore best to plant sweetcorn where it can get full-sun for as many hours as possible.
It&#;s also important to think about light towards the end of the year &#; as the sun dwindles and doesn&#;t climb as high in the sky, will it still cast light on your plants? Around the spring equinox, take some time to observe and ensure your planned growing area won&#;t be too shady in September.
You can see the effects of shading here. There is a fence to the north on the left of the photo so the plants on the left get the least light and were about half the height by the end of the season.Sweetcorn doesn&#;t need staking in place. The plants anchor themselves into the ground through the roots and the brace roots at the base. However they may benefit from additional support in windy or exposed areas.
If you are growing sweetcorn in containers then use a large container as the plant and cobs will be limited by the amount of available soil and I would suggest staking the plant by tying the stalks to a bamboo pole inserted at the time of planting.
Alternatively, you could move the container into a greenhouse and grow your plants under cover.
There is more than enough heat and light to grow sweetcorn outside in the UK except in the far north and you do not need a greenhouse. Sweetcorn grows successfully on commercial farms and in domestic gardens. Common varieties should yield fresh or dried corn before the first frosts in late Autumn.
Sweetcorn has a shallow root system. The depth will vary based on conditions, in particular soil moisture and soil type, but 85% of the root mass is in the first 30cm of soil. This is where most of the water and nutrient absorption takes place.
Like most grasses, sweetcorn is relatively drought resistant but it does prefer regular watering, especially when the plant is young and the root system is immature. While the cobs are forming and ripening we want to ensure the plant doesn&#;t dry out or it will impact yield.
Unless there is a significant drought, a thick layer of mulch around the base should be sufficient to prevent sweetcorn plants from drying out even in the dry eastern half of the UK. But monitor your local conditions and apply water if the soil is dry a few inches down in the soil.
I water my plants using a soaker hose on a timer and try and get a mulch layer down on my garden beds by the middle of July. Read this article about installing soaker hoses to see if they can make watering your sweetcorn patch hassle free.
Application of organic matter such as manure in the autumn before planting or organic compost up until the time of planting should provide sufficient nutrients for the plants. However sweetcorn is a grass and therefore consumes significant amounts of nitrogen while growing, so applying a nitrogen feed or a nitrogen-releasing mulch could improve growth rate and final plant height.
Like most fruiting plants, while the cobs are forming and ripening, the plant&#;s nutrient requirement will shift away from nitrogen and towards phosphorous and potassium. Using an organic tomato feed or a seaweed fertiliser would be appropriate at this stage.
I personally do not feed my sweetcorn plants at all during the season and instead rely on an application of organic compost in the spring every other year and apply a layer of grass clippings as a mulch which I keep topped up as needed.
After fertilisation, the cobs will begin to fill-out and get heavier. You may start to see the plant buckling around the ears. The silks will shrink and start to turn brown and they will darken over time until they reach a chocolate-like colour. This means it&#;s time to harvest!
These silks hanging off of the end of the ear will start to go a brown colour as the fruit develops. Kernels will appear and start to bulk out before then, but they aren&#;t ready to eat yet! These silks are only just going brown at the tips&#;Before harvesting, you should check the sweetcorn to ensure it&#;s turned ripe. The classic test is the &#;fingernail test&#;. Peel back a few leaves from the husk and pierce one of the kernels. If the liquid looks milky, it&#;s ready to eat. If it&#;s clear and watery, it&#;ll need a little while longer.
To harvest sweetcorn, hold the stem of the plant in one hand, an ear in your other hand (as if you are holding a torch) and then simultaneously rotate the ear and and twist your hand downwards. The ear should come away clean from the plant.
You can then remove the brown silks, unfurl the husk and throw that sweetcorn on a barbecue or straight into a pan. Sweetcorn looses flavour every second it&#;s off the plant, so cook your sweetcorn as soon as possible after harvest (ideally straight away). It&#;ll still be edible for a few days if it&#;s kept in the fridge and it&#;ll last longer if you keep it wrapped up in it&#;s husk, but it won&#;t quite be as good.
BYOS! Yes, the best barbecues have a &#;bring your own sweetcorn&#; policyIf no liquid comes out during the fingernail test or if the kernels are really hard, then you are probably too late and it might be best to leave the corn on the plant to mature further and instead use it as a flour or corn-meal or as seed for next year.
To harvest corn for drying, wait until the husks are starting to yellow and then pull the ears from the plant via a twist and a tug. Peel back the husk but keep the leaves attached &#; use them to hang the sweetcorn until the kernels have fully dried. I do this in a plastic greenhouse for a month and then remove and store the seeds indoors.
I dry my sweetcorn in a plastic greenhouse and use the leaves from the husk to tie the cobs up. Anywhere dry and airy will do the trick!It is possible to leave the plants standing with the ears still attached through the autumn (and winter) and let the sweetcorn kernels dry out naturally. Moisture and rot can be an issue and even under favourable conditions, you might find a small amount of fluffy mould on the seed coating. But I managed to harvest some glass gem seeds in May &#; a full 12 months after planting. They haven&#;t germinated yet, mind&#;
If you grow heirloom varieties, then you can dry and save the seeds in the autumn and they will grow true to type the following year. If you grow hybrids or if you plant many varieties together, you can still use the seed but the plant might not be the same and the corn could taste quite different.
Most sweetcorn seeds have a shelf-life of a few years. Best before dates on packets are usually 1-2 years but you&#;ll get reasonable germination long after that if they are stored in a low temperature and low humidity environment away from any bright lights, particularly sunlight.
All my dried sweetcorn went to the chickens over winter.Sweetcorn is one of the best crops to grow at home because it&#;s very low maintenance and it&#;s impossible to get sweetcorn that fresh or that tasty in a shop. You can grow slower-growing, tastier varieties and even colourful ornamental cobs or you can make your own corn-meal from the dried kernels.
Because supermarkets can&#;t provide any of this and because sweetcorn is relatively easy to grow, I make sure to grow a least a small amount of it somewhere in my garden each year. I hope you find a place in your garden to do the same.
Happy Gardening!
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