This hot weather is perfect for germinating tender vegetables such as sweetcorn. You can now sow these seeds in their final position outdoors, which is the best way of preventing growth problems resulting from cramped tap roots.
Growing sweetcorn
The thing to remember about sweetcorn is that it is a grass, and therefore needs to be grown in blocks to ensure successful wind pollination. Sow 18in apart, four rows deep, and water well. The soil should have been manured the previous season, and should not dry out, as this usually results in poor yields.
Maintaining sweetcorn
Continue to water well, and protect seedlings from slugs and birds. The best way to do this is to cover with cloches, or lemonade bottles with the bottoms cut off. Mulch when established to conserve moisture.
Harvesting sweetcorn
When the tassels on the cobs turn dark brown, press one of the sweetcorn seeds between your fingers. If a milky white liquid runs out, the cob is ready to eat. You’re unlikely to have much difficulty with this, but eat soon after picking before the lovely sugars convert into chewy starch.
Cultivars
Unless you have about 200m between your sweetcorn beds, you shouldn’t try to grow more than one cultivar together. This is particularly relevant if you are growing bicoloured corn, or the ’supersweet’ hybrids. Cross-pollination results in starchy, tasteless cobs, which is not ideal. We are growing ‘Supersweet’.
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