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sweetcorn
treehugger80
Posts: 1,923
in Fruit & veg
this year I thought i'd try a sweetcorn called 'swift' designed for growing in more northerly locations.
the plants are now waist high, with plenty of green leafy growth, but are not showing any signs of flowering from the top or getting cob growths along the stem and i'm starting to get worried that I've made a mistake buying this variety as they seem behind where my sweetcorn were last year.
am I worrying for no reason?
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I live in the south and my cobs are close to ripeness. The hair has gone brown and I will test them tomorrow. I don't know the type as they are from Homebase and bought them on a whim, they have done really well.
We are eating cobs from swift, but we have a very sheltered warm garden in Cambridgeshire. It's the best variety I've grown; full cobs and intensely sweet.
I was about to mention 'Lark', scroggin. While I'm not growing sweetcorn this year, I have always had good results with this variety.
I have grown Swift for three years. I sow seed under glass in individual pots in May and plant out in June when frosts have gone. Mine are between 5 and 6ft. They are in a block, 7 plants by 10. They are only just opening the male flowers, and the females are barely showing. I do not expect to be eating the corn until September.
We ate and froze all ours in July, but I live in SW France. It was a good year, been hot.
My sweetcorn is only about 20 inches tall.. my mates are 6ft in a poly tunnels and he is eating his..
We have cobs, but nowhere near ripe yet - plants about 5ft tall. Can't remember the variety, but did as Fidget did - started in GH and planted out in June.
we are also using another tip I picked up from the forum last year, and growing courgettes in the ground underneath them - the cougettes scramble on the ground, the sweetcorn reaches for the sky, and we get two crops from one patch
went and had a look at the weekend at the top flowers are just starting to show but still no sign of any cob like growths (bar small tufts of leaves) down the stems, so like fidgetbones.
So either i'm getting late sweetcorn or none at all, here's hoping for an Indian summer!
I wouldn't care but I started mine in late April and planted them out in early June the weekend after what turned out to be the last frosts, I thought I'd timed it perfectly!
They'll get there. I never plant out until June. we will be eating them in September. female flowers are just showing silks now. (the lilies are in pots at the side of that veg bed.)