Grower’s Corner – corn
Sweetcorn is an increasingly popular allotment crop, not terribly suitable for smaller gardens because it is wind pollinated which means it is best planted in large blocks, where the male flowers at the top of the plant have more opportunity to shed their pollen on the female tassels below. Each plant will produce one or two cobs, so to establish the space needed for your crop, work out how many cobs you are likely to need and provide enough space to achieve this.
It’s a plant that likes free-draining, moisture retentive soil. It’s best to prepare the bed the autumn before planting, adding plenty of well-rotted manure to the soil. Dig over the site removing any large stones, then level roughly before working over with a rake to leave a fine finish if you intend to plant from seed.
Ready-grown plants will establish quickly and provide cobs earlier than sowing seed directly into the soil, but if you want to grow from seed, in April, fill a three inch pot with compost, make an inch deep hole in the top and drop two seeds in. Cover, water and put on a windowsill to germinate. When seedlings are about half an inch, tall discard the weakest one and put plants in a shady place outdoors to harden off before planting out. Ready-grown plants can go into the soil from May. Using a trowel, set sweetcorn plants about a foot apart with two feet between rows to form a square. In a lot of the UK, sweetcorn seedlings damp off if sown direct into the soil, although if you live in a particularly mild climate and can protect them with fleece, you may decide to try this method, in which case plant two seeds as before and thin out the weaker seedling.
Keep plants well watered and the soil weed free, but be careful not to sever the surface roots of the sweetcorn if you work with a hoe. To protect these surface roots and offer the plants more stability, pile soil up around the stems – if you live in a windy area you may also have to provide a windbreak in the early growing season to stop the roots being snapped by plant movement.
Corn is ready when the silky tassels at the end of the cobs turn brown, but check by gently peeling back the leaves and pinching a kernel. If the juice is milky, cobs are ready to pick. To do this, simply twist the cob away from the plant.
Three sisters planting – an alternative way to grow corn
This system involves growing corn, beans and courgettes or summer squash together. The idea is that the corn gets away first, then the beans twine around the cornstalk so you don’t need canes, and the bean plant converts nitrogen from the air into food for the roots of the growing corn, so there’s no need to apply fertiliser. Then the squash or courgette will spread as ground cover, its broad leaves shading the soil to preserve moisture and protect the roots of the taller plants, while preventing weeds from taking hold, so again the gardener need not apply mulch or undertake weeding.
Corn photographs by Noel Zia Lee and tomas pix, used under a creative commons attribution licence
Rhubarb photographs by kyz and Rochelle et al, used under a creative commons attribution licence