In the past, either greed or wishful thinking has tempted me to cram far too many sweetcorn plants into my vegetable beds, resulting in very disappointing yields.
In the past, either greed or wishful thinking has tempted me to cram far too many sweetcorn plants into my vegetable beds, resulting in very disappointing yields. This year I was determined to supply my family with a decent crop of sweetcorn, which they love, so I spaced the plants more widely.
Soon, the large bare areas between them started niggling me, and I planted a few compact courgettes in the spaces, along with some Tagetes 'Lemon Gem' to attract beneficial insects such as hoverflies. The adults feed on pollen from the open flowers, and hopefully breed and lay eggs. Developing larvae then feed on aphids, acting as a form of natural pest control.
When I experimented with the 'square foot vegetable plot' planting technique a couple of years ago, I placed my sweetcorn plants more closely together than is usually recommended, thinking that I could squeeze more in and get a bigger yield in return. This turned out not to be the case. I learned that although sweetcorn likes to be grown in blocks to encourage good cross-pollination between plants, each plant needs space to grow. This year each plant is at least 30-45cm (12-18in) from its neighbours, which should be enough.
I'm trying a few varieties this year, including 'Swift', which is described as "an early maturing, extra tender variety with a high sugar content." They claim you can eat it raw, although I don't quite know why you'd want to!
Despite relishing hot, sunny conditions I still believe sweetcorn mustn't go short of water, so this year I've installed a new underground watering system connected to a water butt. If it works well then I'll be featuring the system in my What to do now pages in Gardeners' World Magazine next year.
For now everything looks promising, but one thing still bothers me. Descriptions in seed catalogues often promise two or three cobs per plant, but I rarely get more than one. I wonder whether gardeners in other parts of the country do better?
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