My attempts to grow sweetcorn
By Fleur
@Fleura (35022)
United Kingdom
September 15, 2022 2:38pm CST
I first tried to grow sweetcorn a couple of years ago. I grew a few plants and they did OK, but my main problem was that I didn’t know when to harvest the cobs so I think I waited rather too long.
Last year was a bit better, but it did seem like rather a lot of space to take up for not such a great return, I only got about one cob per plant (so basically Little One ate those!)
Then a friend gave me some interesting seeds for Christmas, among which was a corn variety called ‘Glass Gem’ which produces multicoloured corn. The seed packet had virtually no information though, only the name.
I sowed those and planted out ten plants, and they did well, the plants are about 7 feet tall and each one produced 3 or 4 cobs. Again I had the issue of when to harvest them, as they didn’t seem to grow as big as the ones we see in shops, but once the silks had turned brown I knew they wouldn’t get any bigger, so I picked them anyway. And they were quite nice. Some were a bit more chewy than ‘normal’ but like the size, I put this down to the drought we have been having (I virtually never watered the corn).
Only today for some reason I looked up the variety online and found that in fact it is only meant to be used for popping corn or even as decoration!
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.
https://www.premierseedsdirect.com/product/vegetable-glass-gem-corn-organic/
12 people like this
11 responses
@BarBaraPrz (51819)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
15 Sep 22
I only had three cobs from my "crop". The first one I picked was perfect, the second one was mostly "empty" with only a few full kernels and the third one was mostly full with only a few empties. But, like you, I left it too long so it was chewy, too. I ate it anyway.
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (51819)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
16 Sep 22
@Fleura Potatoes and beans are easy (I was going to say a piece of cake, but that's mixing foodstuffs, if not metaphors).
@kaylachan (84784)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
15 Sep 22
Sounds like you finally got it right. Keep at it and you'll get that sweetcorn.
1 person likes this
@kaylachan (84784)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
16 Sep 22
@Fleura It's not supposed to be easy. But, you're getting there it sounds like.
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (17239)
• China
16 Sep 22
Oh,the Glass Gem variety is just used for popping corn decoration ! Small wonder it is chewy .
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (135744)
• Marion, Ohio
16 Sep 22
@Fleura It can be hard to time with that type of corn. But if you get it right you will love it.
2 people like this
@Fleura (35022)
• United Kingdom
16 Sep 22
According to @wolfgirl569 it is still good to eat if picked early enough. I will have to keep a closer eye on it next year (I still have one and a half packets of seeds to use!)
2 people like this
@allknowing (153530)
• India
16 Sep 22
I have had a bit of success a long time ago. Did not know there were varieties in sweet corn.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (35022)
• United Kingdom
16 Sep 22
I didn't know all that much about it either, although I do know that the types you see in farmers' fields are not the same.
Incidentally when I was a child, corn/maize was never grown in Wales, where I grew up. Basically only oats, barley, wheat or potatoes were the regular crops. Now maize is quite comon. Not sure if that's due to climate change or development of more hardy varieties, or perhaps both.
@wolfgirl569 (135744)
• Marion, Ohio
16 Sep 22
That type is considered decoration. But if you pick it a little bit earlier than you did it will still taste very good.
1 person likes this
@aninditasen (18198)
• Raurkela, India
16 Sep 22
Our Indian corns come in a variety of sizes and they are tasty when they aren't too ripe.
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