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Sweetcorn plant

seyfadesseyfades Posts: 146
in Fruit & veg
Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine, I know my veg plants are enjoying it the best. 

I noticed last week, my sweetcorn plant seems to be growing side branch on the stem, I am familiar with suckers on tomato plants, but unsure about sweetcorn plant. Do I cut them off as I do with tomato plant or do I leave them to develop? The affected plants are the ones in the first row that get hits by the sun first.  

Also I currently use liquid growmore to feed them, will I be better using liquid seaweed or comfrey tea?

Posts

  • treehugger80treehugger80 Posts: 1,923
    they are your cobs forming, if you remove them you then you won't get any sweetcorn, you have got more than 1 plant? as you need at least 6 to get them to pollinate and get formed sweetcorn
  • seyfadesseyfades Posts: 146
    Oh, I forgot to add the pictures 
  • seyfadesseyfades Posts: 146
    @treehugger80

    Yes I  have got about 12 plants planted in a block. 

    I have attached some pictures, I don’t think the are the cob forming, the look more like new plants. Please check the images I attached. 
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 9,971
    My Swift sweetcorn are doing the same - lots of side-shoots and flower tassels just appearing
    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 16,527
    The female flowers which become cobs are on the sides. The male flower which produce the pollen to fertilise them are at the top. Water well and give the occasional tap to the stem to help distribute pollen when it is ready. A big block will wind pollinate better than lines of plants.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 82,737
    They are 'tillers' ... a sideshoot produced by members of the grass family.  They are a sign that the plant is doing well and they may or may not go on to produce cobs themselves.  Nothing for you to do.

    In my experience Swift sweetcorn does produce several cobs per stem, but the growth in the picture is not cobs. 
    “I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh







  • seyfadesseyfades Posts: 146
    Thank you very much everyone, I will leave the tillers on and hope for a bountiful harvest. Did you give the plant any liquid feed? And which feed do you use?
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,941
    I always remove them.. as my parents and grandparents before have.  We always called them suckers. 

    I've never heard the term tillers.. thanks for the new vocabulary Dove!  Internet says they neither help nor hinder the plant.. so as others suggested, just leave them on.  I will too, now.  
    Utah, USA.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 82,737
    seyfades said:
    Thank you very much everyone, I will leave the tillers on and hope for a bountiful harvest. Did you give the plant any liquid feed? And which feed do you use?
    As corn is a grass, it benefits from nitrogen, so I apply chicken manure pellets when I plant or soon thereafter. 
    “I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh







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