Growing Sweet Corn

Growing sweet corn is the most popular one to grow out of all the corns for the home gardener. It is important to establish when and where to plant your corn. May and June are the two best months to plant. Plant your corn in the sunniest place in your garden, first making sure there are no risks of any more frost. Your corn needs at least eight hours of sunlight a day. For proper germination, soil temperature should be about 60 degrees, for the super sweet varieties slightly higher. Those who require an early start on their corn could cover the soil with plastic mulch, a black or clear polythene sheet is ideal, this will help warm the soil and create faster germination.

If you are going to plant different varieties of corn, it is important to keep them separate, as they can cross pollinate. If, for example, your neighbor or other people in the area are growing corn keep a look out. The distance between corn crops should be about 300 meters. Corn is pollinated by wind and any other person in the same area can have theirs contaminated or vice versa.

The seeds should be planted in well draining soil; otherwise the kernels will rot if they are sat in damp wet soil. It is easy to test your soil pH with a soil tester. These can easily be purchased at your local garden center. The soil should read around 6.0 to 6.5, if your pH is low limestone can be added to raise the pH if this is needed it is better to add the limestone during the winter. This will have your soil ready for the next growing season. To help balance out drainage and pH, adding organic compost will also help.

Now that you are ready to plant the seeds, it is better to plant them about a foot apart for each row, and approximately one inch deep. If your soil is very sandy, plant the seeds a little deeper. When growing sweet corn, it is far better to plant the corn in groups of four rows; this works well to stimulate pollination. A good standard distance between rows is approximately 32 inches.

Always keep your sweet corn watered to produce full, healthy ears. When the tassels start to appear, make sure you are watering at the very least one inch of water per week. Do not let the soil dry out between watering. If at some point the weather is unusually hot and dry, compensate for this and water more frequently. Corn will not grow well if it becomes to dry for long periods.

Growing vegetables or plants in the garden always brings little pests to interfere with the growing process. Growing sweet corn has a few pests to watch out for. Corn rootworm beetles can cause problems with pollination; these immature beetles are normally found in old corn fields. Once they mature, they migrate to feed on tender new corn. Keep a lookout for these beetles when the corn starts to produce silk.

The time to harvest your corn is known as the "milk Stage". This is when the ears are fully formed but not quite ripe. This normally lasts about a week. To see if the corn is ready to harvest, look at the silks. These should be brown and starting to dry, this usually happens about 3 weeks after the silks first appear. The kernels will produce a little milky fluid when pierced, and the husks should hold tightly to the ear. Each stalk of corn usually yields at least one ear, if lucky, sometimes more. Harvest your corn in the cooler hours of the morning. Remove ears of corn by twisting at the base and pulling them off. Store the corn in cool temperatures, the cooler the better. It is best to eat your corn within in a few days of harvesting.

Tracy Ballisager is a stay at home mum and provide info on gardening online. See her website for tips on Hydroponic Vegetable Gardening and more.