Growing Sweetcorn
Gilly7
Posts: 5
in Fruit & veg
I'm a beginner and decided to sow sweetcorn to grow in my newly acquired greenhouse (having just moved house). All 13 plants are growing very well and are now over a foot high, after potting on. However as I live in central Scotland I was intending to grow these in the greenhouse but I understand they need the wind to pollinate the group. Could I leave them in the greenhouse with the door open or do I need to move them outside to pollinate? Or would using a brush work instead?
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How big is the greenhouse -these are going to to grow into rather large plants-what are you growing them in?
They are in groups of 3 in 40cm diameter plastic pots. To be honest I didn't expect all the seeds to germinate - If I'd known I would only have planted 3 or 4. The greenhouse is 9ft x 11ft.
Honestly-I think you are going to have all sorts or problems trying to grow these in the greenhouse,temperature, watering even access-is planting outside not an option?
I have loads of space to position them outside (various sunny walls and along the outside of the greenhouse, slightly exposed to the wind though) but assumed it would be too cold to grow them successfully outside in Scotland.
Might depend on the variety-do you see sweetcorn growing in fields near you?
I haven't seen any sweetcorn near here but believe some farmers grow it in the Borders (further south) for silage only (presumably as they don't harvest well, but I don't really know). No information on the variety on the packet supplied by 'Beautiful Garden' I'm afraid.
They should be planted in blocks so 3 X 4 would be ideal-I would hate to say grow outside and you have an absolute failure-but am not sure about greenhouse growing-see if any others- perhaps posters from Scotland- have to say before deciding.
Why not try keeping half in the greenhouse and half outside
Thanks to you both. I'll keep one block inside and place the others outside.
Has anyone out there in Central Scotland grown sweetcorn outside successfully?
Sweetcorn can easily grow to 6' - I don't want to spoil your experiment but I think they would be far happier outside - they are going to need lots of water if you plant 3 to 40cm pot - if we have a good summer it will probably be too hot for them in a greenhouse. Sorry
Pam x