Tip: if you find any one corn plant growing two healthy ears, only save seeds from that one. Eventually you will have more and more plants growing two ears. Twice as much corn.
I have a short growing season so I have to start my corn inside. I found that using toilet paper tubes as pots works really well. I don't make them into pots, I just set the whole tube on a tray and pack damp dirt into them. Once it's packed in, the dirt doesn't fall from the bottom, kind of like a soil block. The tubes are nice and tall so I get deeper roots started than in a typical starter tray. And the tubes disintegrate quite quickly once they are planted out, much faster than a peat pot.
I use the tubes too but I do put them in plastic pots together and fill the tubes and the gaps which helps keep in the moistu. Then they go right in the ground, root ball isn't disturbed.
@@anstriagreenwood3365 I did have to water them every other day. I found the ones on the outside edge of the tray dried out the fastest but the ones that were surrounded by the other tubes didn't dry as fast. My tray also has a rim about 1/2 inch deep so I always watered so that there was water in the tray up to the rim.
You could also try a paper pot former using newspapers, corn is quite shallow rooted and would appreciate spreading their roots early. Mine go into a seed tray so when watered keep the water in.
A year later and he's inspired me to. I've got a lot of space with full sun and very fertile soil so I'm hoping for success in my first year! Fingers crossed!!
Hi Ben - I'm a seasoned gardener and each time I watch one of your videos I pick up a tip. The oil drench after polination is a new one for me - thanks!
My tips: I've grown corn in seed cells for transplanting, as you advised in your video. But I plant much closer together: two plants in each square foot. I don't grow a lot of corn and I use 4' square raised beds. To prevent stalks from falling over, I install a horizontal trellis made of wood with 1' square spaces directly over each square foot of corn - the trellis is suspended about 18 inches and supported by wood posts attached to the sides of the bed. To ensure good pollination I simply vigorously shake the stalks when they are producing pollen and tassels. You can actually see the pollen floating down toward the silks. As for feeding, the seedlings are planted in a 3 or 4 inch layer of compost. I add a liquid fish fertilizer about every three weeks when the stalks are well-established.
I've used the "combing" the silks like a doll's hair with the piece of tassel as the "comb," and it works amazingly well for my little plot (6 plants per sowing--otherwise it's more than even I can eat!). I also tuck the tassel piece upright in the silks or nearby leaves, so that any additional pollen that comes loose drops right onto the silks. I've had amazing corn, filled right to the tips! Thanks so much for the suggestion!
Plant sweet corn on drip tape - Corn requires a LOT of water. Corn is a heavy feeder - Spoon feed by side-dressing or injecting N when stalks are 8" - 10" high, and again when the stalks are "hiney high", and, unless you have really nutrient-rich soil, alternate fish emulsion and a balanced fertilizer thereafter.
My top tip is about pollination, I never trust the nature to do it, as if like me (in Cornwall) wind comes predominantly from one direction one side will be poorly pollenated. Always choose a calm day first fan the tassels out so you will get maximum coverage and shake, next time flop the fibre fan over the other way, third day fan them out into a circular pattern. Don't do this all on the same day as you will be pollenating your hands not the corn! this will ensure maximum yield, I very rarely have any unpollinated kernels. Lastly before pollenating give the tassels a very sparse water mist to help the pollen to stick.
If you are not aware, the Incas used a layer of burnt wood charcoal on their terraced steps that dramatically helped in the growth of corn. I will be doing the same soon
I plant my corn seeds among black beans and pumpkin, we call it in Mexico Milpa and is an ancient system of farming!! I recommend to use bocashi to feed the soil before start.
I was going to say in Canada (and US, I think) is the 3 sisters. I've never grown corn, but this year I'm not only going to try corn, but also pole beans and summer squash.
One way of hand pollinating (I always hand pollinate) is to take a paper bag when the tassels are producing pollen, cover the tassels with the paper bag, and shake the tassel. The pollen then falls into the bag. Then take a soft paintbrush, dip it in the pollen, and brush the silks with the pollen on the brush. It's very tedious and time consuming but does work.
Oh thanks, I'm gonna try this this year. Cutting the tassels is quite messy, if you cut it in the morning when it's open, all the pollen goes to waste, if you cut it later in the day, it's closed and no pollen gets out...
i remember when i was 3 or 4 i planted corn in the sandbox that was built under my playhouse. my mom said it wouldnt grow there bc of the sand and it having very little light and told me not to get too excited about it. i watered it every day and it did grow! i dont remember much beyond that, i dont think any corn cobs actually came of it or anything but i made five plants and they got two or three feet high and i was so happy! it probably only took root bc the sand was directly on top of the soil below. ive always loved growing a few small things here and there, flowers and vines and pretty little things. im ready to tackle the big one now, im making my vegetable garden this year!
I sowed 45 Swift sweetcorn seeds into root trainers and guess what all of them germinated. Planted them all on allotment and had to buy a small freezer to store them in the garage. Learnt my lesson not to plant so many or in future, sow in stages in case they don't germinate😂
Your veg beds are wonderful, good info given about sweetcorn. This video seems more professional and you give more information in a less rushed presentation. Much better to enjoy and watch.
Hey Ben! I have been inspired today to plant my own corn field that is a matrix of 4 x 4 with some holes double planted, so about 20 corn seedlings (or starts). I tilled my soil and put in some decomposed chicken manure about a month ago and have been gradually forking through the field in order to break up some compacted soil. I then covered it with compost, measured out the matrix, dibbed some holes and poured in a pinch of mychoryzal funghi powder into each hole. Planted out pre-moistened seedlings into each hole, backfilled and watered in. This is the first of what will be the three sisters. You mentioned a lot about pests but what do you do about dead baseballers walking through the field, I really don't want to tear the whole thing down just to put in a baseball diamond ;-) Cheers!
Personally, I grow my corn with a wind barrier around it as wind rock when young really holds the plants back, this is generally 2.5/3ft tall and it also makes a slight difference as a microclimate. I also grow only one type of corn outside too to prevent cross pollination which can also be a disaster. This year I am growing F1 "Incredible" outside and "Minipop" under cover in one of my polytunnels, happy growing everyone...Steve...😃
I'm planning to grow my first corn this year. Actually, I want to grow the Three Sisters - a native companion planting tradition. Thanks for the tips! 🇨🇦
The tassels keep producing pollen for days, so rather than clipping them off when they start producing, I go around and collect all the pollen in a large plastic bag, shake it up well and distribute it around to the silks. That also lets many different plants potentially pollinate each ear.
I lost a good number of ears to cob worms last year. Going to try BT spray this summer. Interesting idea with the oil. Never heard of that. Will give it a shot!
I knew about each silk is a kernel. However I had no clue of the actual anatomy of the corn plant (tassels with pollen). Would have loved to have seen a full picture of the tassels in the plant is association with the silks. You mention on top but I now have to google exactly how these tassels grow out to make myself more aware of the dynamics of the corn plant. Do you recommend covering the corn to reduce chances of moths laying eggs?
Hi Maria. Some recommend adding a few drops of oil at the tip of each ear to stop corn earworms laying their eggs. More on that here: www.growveg.com/pests/us-and-canada/corn-earworm/
Great video, probably the best one i have seen so far about growing sweetcorn. Such a lot of good information delivered so it can be easily understood by beginners like myself. Thanks for the video!
I grew up on Jubilee Sweetcorn. Still the best variety I’ve ever come across. Hard to find on the East Cost, but thanks to the interwebs, it can be ordered.
I have been gardening for 40 years, most of them planting a few cosmos flowers in the corn patch. I haven’t had any worms in my corn since applying this plant in the corn.
I’m really good at growing decorative or dry corn... because I never seem to pick it early enough. This year I’m planting popcorn, so I won’t fail at picking it on time.
This is a great video, could not believe how much there is to learn! For the little story, I had two corn kernels on my kitchen counter, that we dropped while making pop corn. I grabbed them and put them in a small pot where I had previsouly grown some seedling and to my surprise a few days later I had a growing corn plant! Now they are in my square foot gardening planter outside, next to pumpkins and cabbages. Not sure what will happen, but I have enjoyed seeing the plants grow! ;)
Hi, not sure if you see comments on old videos but wanted to say that you should definitely consider growing baby gem lettuce with your corn! I had some that I had thinned and placed them in a number of areas of my veg garden to see where it liked to grow and where I planted 1 in each square of my corn grid, they have grown to almost twice the size!
Great video cheers, my sweetcorn is growing very well indoors and getting ready to plant out, about 4” tall so far so might wait a few days, I’m not sure whether to pot them on and wait a bit or not, it’s nice weather down here in Portsmouth but can get a bit chilly overnight and early mornings, I think I’ll use fleece for a week once sown 🌽
@@GrowVeg thanks, i that’s what I’ll do, when I potted on the corn from small plugs I was amazed how long the tap root of each 4” plant was, they are really long, I’ll definitely plant out this weekend and good advice to use fleece, cheers 😁
I’m trying corn for the first time and starting seeds indoors under grow lights. I’m soaking the seeds for 24 hours as prescribed on the seed packet. I’m planning to use some alphas-ha meql mixed in with my soil mix to add nitrogen. I will plant 25 this year and see what happens. Thanks for the great tips.
I live in Mississippi and grow sweet corn every year. I hill my corn rows and plant in squares , direct sow and sometimes mix in sunflowers or vine peas/beans we have strong west winds sometimes tornadoes here in summer and thunderstorms that will sometimes knock down a few stalks exposing roots, just cover the root with some dirt and the stalks will usually stand back up on its own in a few days provided it isnt snapped or broken . thanks for the info on the pest and pollenating, I learned some things I will try .
I was actually thinking when he mentioned the wind and limiting nitrogen that he really just needs to hill up the rows (or mulch with something heavy, like wood chips) to keep the corn in place. I grow field corn in my garden, but the same rules apply. Give it the nitrogen it wants, then keep the stalks upright by making sure the base of the plant is well supported.
I start mine off in deep pots like the ones you'd typically buy fruit bushes or climbing plants in, putting 2-3 seeds in each pot. It allows those enormous roots to develop really well before planting them out (even so, the first year I grew corn I left it a bit late and most of the plants had anchored themselves to the soil of the greenhouse through the bottom of the pot!). A problem I have encountered a couple of times is corn smut, but it rarely affects the whole batch.
I transplanted both my sweet and popcorn this year...it went so well I'm going to do so every year now. Ben, wonderful tutorial...as always.🙂 I'm a better gardener this year thanks to your channel.🙂
Great video. We found that our corn needed a lot more sun and a longer growing season than we could provide direct sowing so I will be starting them inside (yes I probably should have done this weeks ago)
Hi Libby. I've certainly found I need to push the boundaries a bit and sow as early as possible to give a long enough growing season. But you've still time to start them off if you haven't already - be quick though!
I enjoyed watching this video! I noticed you mentioned to space each stalk 1 foot apart to produce good ears. I have been checking out the square foot method of gardening. That calls for 4 stalks per square foot!! Have you tried this method? Does it produce smaller ears with the stalks being so close together?
I haven't ever grown using the square foot method. I would think four plants per square foot would be way too close, but could be worth trying an area at this spacing for comparison?
Corn's normally started from seed, so I'm guessing you're growing on a corn seedling? Corn loves sunshine and must be kept well watered as it's a relatively shallow rooted plant. Hope the project goes well. :-)
If you’re in the country, don’t plant sweet corn anywhere near feed corn. They will cross and nothing good will come of that. My brother-in-law did it. Used his seeder to plant the last two rows of a field with sweet corn rather than field corn. Just disgusting
It depends on where you live. Here in the UK I sow indoors in April then grow on to plant into the ground from about mid May. You can sow direct into the soil until late May, but I prefer to make an earlier start to give a longer growing season in our cool climate.
Great video mine are in my greenhouse as I live in Ireland in countryside in one of the windiest counties and I'm on a hill. There looking healthy about a foot tall can I keep them in here and keep topping them up as we have mink and foxes as so close to house along with many cats???? Thank you ❤️
Yes, you could certainly keep them in the greenhouse but be sure to help pollination along. Check out our recent video on pollinating corn for well-filled cobs: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DQSwwLvVtCE.html
I planted potatoes in 15 gallon pots. Is it OK if I till the growing medium in these pots into my corn bed before starting the Fall sweet corn? No bad side effects?
Your corn plant very green in your garden , i just transplant from pocket to sack now start to grow up with green leaved, thanks for sharing nice tips i learn something new from you
So the leaves and stems have enough room - for light to reach all parts of the plant. Also, so there's enough moisture and nutrients for each plant to draw on at the root level.
Is corn a financially attractive crop to grow in a garden, compared to others? From what you said, it seems you get about 10 plants per square meter, and it seems like there are two cobs per plant? That sounds like ideally I can get 200 cobs in 10m². Comparing the Tesco corn-on-the-cob price of £0.64/cob, that would value at £128 minus costs. It doesn't seem very much compared, for example, to growing raspberries. Is it actually a worthwhile crop to dedicate a space in the garden, from the perspective of saving on buying groceries?
I think if you're concentrating on saving money in the supermarket, it may be best to concentrate on other crops like tomatoes, beans, salad leaves, herbs etc.
we have to fight off the earwigs, who will eat the silks down to the top of the ear. Naturally this then makes it really tough to pollinate. I used a lot of diatomaceous earth but don't like to use a lot. I'm not sure what else to do. We have major problems with Argentine ants that like to farm aphids on just everything. It's a constant battle. even so we managed to get a few good ears. I'll get it dialed in this season I hope. This climate isn't good for sweet corn. It's too cool and foggy, and I discovered that black Peruvian corn does great. It has really tight ears and you can boil the cobs for dye. It's a dent corn and makes amazing tortillas.
That Black Peruvian corn sounds very promising - I've a cool and often damp climate so may well investigate. It must be great to make your own tortillas.
@@GrowVeg It's time consuming but the results are worth it in my view. The corn is also called Purple Peruvian, some varieties are Black Kulli Inca, and Morado. It's traditionally used to brew an alcoholic drink, also mixed with to make a healthy drink called chicha morada. Very nutritious corn variety.
You can do the fingernail test. Simply push a thumbnail into one of the kernels - if it exudes a milky sap it is good to harvest. If the sap is very clear and watery, it needs a bit longer.
Ben, last year my corn plants grew quickly up to 6 feet tall and were looking great. But then suddenly the stalks all turned dark red and the plants died within a few days. Was this as simple as they weren’t pollinated properly or did a disease kill them? Would you hand pollinate to prevent this from happening again or is it better to try to have it happen naturally? Also unrelated but I was curious. What is your absolute favorite vegetable to grow? Thank you.
Hi there. The stalks turning dark red wouldn't be anything to do with pollination (or lack of it). I suspect you were unlucky with some sort of disease. Wishing you better luck this year. Hand pollination is always worth it if you're unsure you'll get enough natural pollination - there's no harm in doing it anyhow. My favourite vegetable to grow? I reckon just for sheer productivity and speed of growth it has to be zucchini/courgette, with runner beans a close second. My favourite to eat though is most definitely garlic and asparagus!
If you have a garden shredder after uprooting the spent plants let them dry out as much as possible and pass them through the shredder, they will compost far quicker, same with cobs they will compost but take an age unless chopped up.
I have had luck planting corn and pole beans together in the same bed. The beans provide the corn with fertilizer and the corn stalks give the beans something to grow on. I tried the three sisters method before, but I have a problem with squash bugs killing the vines, so now I just plant two sisters.
I'm pretty new to gardening and growing, the lockdown last year definitely gave me the bug for it! Haha I just did 3 types of peas last year, but this year I've got a few things on the go, including sweetcorn. I picked Ambrossia which should be a nice sweet variety, though I did plant them (all!) at the start of April, so now they are all sitting still in my window but are around 1 and a half foot tall now, but the stems seems a little thin and delicate and some are leaning over a bit towards the window for the light. It's been such a cold, windy, rainy and haily week but today we go a bit of nice warm sunshine so I took them out for 15-20 mins and I'll continue to do that for the next week or so, hopefully then I can replant them in the large fabric pots I have towards the end of may (I don't have the option to plant directly as we have mostly a gravel garden with nearly every space taken up with other pot plants haha!
You're doing the right thing in hardening them off gradually to the outside conditions. I'm assuming you're in the UK. The weather is improving dramatically this week, and I'd wager we've had our last frost - but I may have spoken too soon! Keep them out for as long as you can during the day to get them their light, then bring them in as late as you can after a few days. They'll soon be good to go outside.
@@GrowVeg Yes that's right, I'm in Cambridgeshire :) Thanks so much, what an awful day of rain today but thankfully it's filling up our water butts haha! Going to be getting them out tomorrow for sure, supposed to be getting up to 19 degrees here! ☀️
Near potted plants or in the garden, the best way to trap earwigs is with an oil pit trap. Use a small plastic container with lid, and cut a pencil-size entry hole in the top. Place a shallow pool of any vegetable oil in the container with a splash of soy sauce for aroma. Replace the lid, and put the trap where earwigs are likely to be present. Empty and refill traps every few days. Avoid growing susceptible plants close to hedges and walls covered in ivy as these can harbour large numbers of earwigs.
I've never had squirrels damage my sweetcorn, despite them being around, so you may find they don't show an interest in your corn. Otherwise you'd have to look at something like a fruit cage to protect them.
I have acquired an allotment and I'm going to try growing a block of corn. The other chaps at the allotment say it's a waste of time as the badgers eat them. Now, I've read male urine can be sprinkled about as a deterrent. Has anyone had any experience of this method?
Your seeds germination house is nice i thinking to build small like you is more easy keep seed sprout safe from mouse and rain damage them, i like your garden with green thumb , thanks for sharing to us such informative and education
It would vary from around mid to late May. However, looking at the forecast, I would say it is now spectacularly unlikely we'll get a frost - so I'd plant them out now.
Cross fertilisation of different strains can also lead to bland corn - I always grow just one variety in a season and try to protect them from neighbouring allotment corns with a screen.
Very usefull and inspiring Also would they grow ok in a polytunnel of sorts .I have problems with the wind where I am.i do realize that perhaps pollination might be a issue inside maybe .cheers
Something eats my corn silk within days of it coming out. I pollinate like you said the little stubby ends and I do get corn but it is hard to tell when it is ready to pick and there are missing kernels. Any idea what I am fighting?
I wonder if it could be corn borer? www.growveg.com/pests/us-and-canada/corn-earworm/ For better filled cobs, also try hand pollinating: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DQSwwLvVtCE.html
@@GrowVeg I don't know. I only have silk for 1 day before it is gone, it usually looks cut off and is laying on the ground. I have tried the oil but it doesn't make a difference.
The plug trays have plugs that are around an inch or 2-3cm wide, but you could use smaller ones if you plant them promptly once the roots have filled the plugs.
I guess it would be full of rich nutrients, so potentially, yes. But maybe try it on a smaller area first, to check it won't harm the plants, as you won't be sure how strong it is.
Hi Ben great video, I have just sown my corn today, first time growing it for me as is most of the stuff I have, looking at some good weather here on Anglesey stay safe 👍 🏴
You can start off quite a lot of warm-season staples indoors during this time. For example, peppers, chili peppers, eggplant, as well as various leafy herbs and salads. The peppers and eggplant would need a little background warmth to encourage them to germinate. And all would need some grow lights to help them establish at a time of very low light levels.
