Best tasting Sweet Corn Ever

Wow! I bet they taste delicious! I absolutely love sweetcorn and have tried several times in the past...when I had an allotment.. to grow it...with little or poor success. I envy both you and your allotment...well done!!

Waddy... There are a few simple rules to success with sweet corn and I see at the allotment site the majority of people failing with sweet corn for those reasons.

Sweet corn must never suffer root disturbance during the period between sowing and planting out and must never become pot bound so alway pot on into larger pots. Also don't plant out too early- it is better to pot on again instead. 2nd week of June is best.

Remember sweet corn is a grass so the feed should always be high nitrogen. Give base dressing of general fertilizer plus a good dose of Nitrogen like Suphate of Ammonia or Dried Blood. Liquid feed with the high N feeds.

Grow the sweet corn in a sunny but ideally sheltered spot. If you are further north than about Yorkshire/Lancs it is usually too cold to do well with sweet corn but they do OK in polytunnels in the north.

Bilbo and Waddy...

To be more specific and hopefully more helpful, I chitted the seeds on wet kitchen roll in the airing cupboard from 17th to 21st April. On 21st about 95% had chitted. I used 2 x 40 section module trays placed into standard seed trays. I used the very coarse textured but highly suitable Wickes Peat Free Multi Purpose Compost. I filled the trays then made a hole in each section and dropped a chitted seed in each. Then covered with more of the same compost. Gave them a good watering and waited. Germination in my unheated greenhouse was between 10 and 14 days. When the plants were about 3 inchs high I pushed the plugs out with rootball intact and potted into 3 1/2inch (9cm) pots of the same compost but I added some grit and some sieved loam to give it more body, plus some Q4 and some Dried Blood to make the compost high Nitrogen and higher in nutrient. From mid May the plants were stood outdoors in a standing out area to grow on. Then took to the allotment about 15th June and planted out in the block at about 15 inches each way. The final planting ground had a heavy dressing of Q4 (4oz per sq yrd) and extra N as Dried Blood(2oz per sq yrd) and Hoof and Horn (2oz per sq yrd). Liquid fed them with Chempak No2 and Vitax Vitafeed 412 up until mid August. Also gave a couple of dry top dressings of Dried blood around the plants at about 1 month intervals. Sweet Corn particularly likes Dried Blood and I do not know why it does but maybe Dried Blood contains plenty of Iron too which is liked by all grasses including Sweet Corn.

Thank you Sunnyhill. They certainly need a lot of TLC. Will also save for next year.

They look tasty ... I'm pleased for you.