corn growing advice

war garden 572

last season i promise corn growing info so those in
UK had better chance of grow good crop. this thread will
 focus on sweet corn.I will post posting several messages
in this since posting it all at once is a lot typing and  will
take a lot time. 

the first part i will focus on is kernel colour:
the kernel colour of corn is determined by the color at pollen
if you growing a white corn variety and the kernel is pollinated by 
a yellow corn pollen that kernel will be yellow. the colour is also
determine by series of gene more dominant. red and black
are more dominant. so if you packet says you are growing
 a bicolor varieties you are growing two different colors of
same variety in the packet.  the colours in the cob will
have random white and yellow kernel in the cob.


next topic: will be spacing:

fidgetbones

If growing in the UK, follow the instructions on the pack, sow inside in 3 inch pots,beginning of May,  and plant out at end of May when frosts are finished. Plant 18inch apart in a block to get best pollination.  Water well in dry spells.

Next post. teaching granny to suck eggs.

Hostafan1

fidgetbones said:

If growing in the UK, follow the instructions on the pack, sow inside in 3 inch pots,beginning of May,  and plant out at end of May when frosts are finished. Plant 18inch apart in a block to get best pollination.  Water well in dry spells.

Next post. teaching granny to suck eggs.

serve with powdered egg and spam, as we've not progressed any further

war garden 572

war garden 572

fidgetbones said:

If growing in the UK, follow the instructions on the pack, sow inside in 3 inch pots,beginning of May,  and plant out at end of May when frosts are finished. Plant 18inch apart in a block to get best pollination.  Water well in dry spells

proper spacing for good pollination of corn  is 12 in apart max.
that is is only for late varieties that grow tall. early and
 mid season varieties can planted 4 per square foot  2 per
square foot respectively. a 4ft x 8 block can grow the following
 number of plants early varieties 32 plants midseason varieties.  
and late season varieties that is going by well respected sources

war garden 572

here is source article for the closeness of spacing
on pg 26 of organic gardening feb 1996
https://archive.org/details/sim_organic-gardening_1996-02_43_2/page/27/mode/1up?view=theater


ps there is nothing about gardening in uk that growing 
so different that it will not work likes it does in USA.

pansyface

You haven’t enjoyed a year in Derbyshire.

An old man I knew when I was a child, who had been a farmer all his life, had seen snow in every month of the year.

Frozen sweetcorn anyone?

fidgetbones

I wouldn't presume how to tell anyone in Scotland how to grow stuff, anymore than I expect someone in Cornwall to tell me here in Derbyshire. Climates are quite different.  Something that survives the winter in one place doesn't survive in another. Wet and cold can be far more damaging than dry and freezing but sheltered from wind.

I have a friend who lived a time in California, Pittsburgh, and Perth, Western Australia. All had totally different soils, climates and bore no resemblance to gardening here in the Midlands. She took advice from people growing in that locality.

I have no idea how to grow red corn in texas, however I get a good crop of Swift F1  most years , apart from when  the squirrels hijacked the lot one afternoon when I was at work.

pansyface

Yes, grey squirrels from north America. They brought their corn stealing knowledge with them. 😕

Fairygirl

At the risk of sounding like Basil Fawlty @pansyface, don't mention the squirrels.....
As @fidgetbones says, there are vast differences in growing conditions in the UK, never mind the huge expanses of the United States.
Utter nonsense to suggest there's a 'one size fits all' approach in gardening - of any kind. 

Dovefromabove

F1 varieties like  ‘Swift’ have been developed for the shorter growing season we have here in the UK and in my experience it produces a good crop most years at 18” spacing, in the growing conditions prevalent over most of lowland central and southern UK. 

It is not helpful to suggest that UK gardeners should grow the later varieties that are more commonly grown in the USA. The growing season here is too short.