Chris's Weblog – City Chickens

My diary from 2006

Tag Archive: sweetcorn

Chris's Weblog - City Chickens > sweetcorn

Sowing and Growing Sweetcorn in 2018

May 3, 2018 Allotments, Garden, Vegetables , , , , ,

 

I’ve gone from saying that I am not growing any sweetcorn this year to sowing three different varieties. This morning I have sown 16 seeds of Sweetcorn Fiesta, a colourful, edible variety that I have never grown before and 30 seeds of Sweetcorn Mini Pop. I have sown them into a flat seed tray, side by side and hope to grow them on a little before they are planted at the allotment. Although we are into May the temperatures are very low so I decided to start them at home. The other variety is Sweetcorn Incredible, an F1 variety that we have grown before. These Rob wants to sow directly into the ground at the allotment.

 

Fiesta is an incredible multi-coloured variety was developed from traditional Indian corn with kernels of yellow, red, black, purple, pink, even marbled! A Traditional Indian Corn, that produces long cobs with multicoloured grain. Fiesta is a large, annual, cereal grass with erect, leafy, dark purple stems bearing dark purple ears containing sweet, edible, multi-coloured seeds, ready for harvest as early as late summer. This cultivar is suitable for cooler climates. The jury is out as to whether this corn is edible. Beautiful? yes. Unusual? yes. A talking point? yes. But edible hmmmm.

Sweetcorn Mini Pop Has been specially bred to be small. Each plant produces 5-6 long pale yellow cobs witch have  a sweet crunchy taste. They are useful in stir fry, curries or just on their own.

Sweetcorn Incredible is an F1 main season variety that produces medium sized sugar enhanced cobs producing a high number of  average sized cobs.

 

 

 

Sweetcorn Wagtail and Incredible

March 24, 2017 Allotments, Vegetables , ,

I bought seeds of Sweetcorn Wagtail from Seekay at 32 seeds for 99p. Today I have put 24 in a modular propagation tray. They should germinate in 7 days. I had pre-soaked them. All of these seeds germinated, grew to about two inches high, then keeled over and died. I have no idea what happened but today, 5th May, I have sown 25 seeds of Sweetcorn Incredible. A main season variety that produces medium sized sugar enhanced cobs. 12th May and the corn is looking good. I am confident of having 25 good plants to go out in June.

Sweetcorn Wagtail F1 performs well producing cobs of sweetcorn that are super sweet. This is a late season variety that produces a high yield of cobs per plant.  When growing Sweetcorn it is considered best to not grow more than one variety to avoid any cross pollination which can harm yields and the quality of the crop. On larger sites it is possible to grow more than one variety.  Sweetcorn should be grown in blocks to help pollination.

Seeds of Hope

January 11, 2017 Allotments, Vegetables , , , , , , ,

Eleven packets of seed arrived today and they look very healthy so I am optimistic about growing some productive plants. I have used a company that is new to me. It is called Seekay and is trading on Amazon. Cost and delivery has been good. Seeds arrived packed well and in individual sealed polythene packets. I will report on success and failure but will allow for grower error.

Tomato Ildie – I grew this tomato back in the day. It is mentioned on the old blog posts. I used up the last of my old seeds last year so have bought new for the coming season. I received 20 seeds at a cost of 65p. Sweetcorn F1 Wagtail – This is a new variety for me. It is listed as super sweet and at 99p for 32 seeds the price is sweet too. Climbing French Bean Blue Lake – 90 seeds for 65p. When I was able to go back to the allotment at the end of last season I was given a bag full of this prolific bean by our plot neighbour. I was very impressed and determined to grow them myself this year. Imagine my surprise when reading back over old blog posts to see that I had actually grown these before. This demonstrates to me how ones mind can be completely taken over when it is coping with a personal tragedy. New priorities move in and dominate our thinking. Parsnip Guernsey – 100 seeds for 55p. Another new variety to me. The Guernsey variety was the most popular parsnip of the 19th century. Introduced prior to the 1850’s, this variety is medium-long, and has thick shoulders and smooth white skin. The flesh gets even sweeter after a good frost in autumn. It’s not as long as the Hollow Crown and has a sweet and delicate flavour.  Information from Baker Creek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweetcorn Swift

April 9, 2009 Allotments ,

I have sown 24 chitted seeds of Sweetcorn Swift today to grow on a little before planting out on the corn bed later at the end of May or early June. They were chitted by laying them on damp kitchen paper with another layer on top, sealed in a plastic sandwich box and left in the airing cupboard for two days. They emerged looking like little devils with two horn like shoots making it difficult to decide which way up to plant them. This was the first variety of sweetcorn bred with a very thin skin on the kernels that greatly improved the eating qualities. It is well adapted to UK growing conditions and cobs are juicy, sweet and full of  flavour. I have put the box back into the airing cupboard with the last of the baby corn seeds in to chit. Update on 11th May; young plants are now in their permanent bed on plot 8.

Courgette Anyone?

August 13, 2007 Allotments, Vegetables , , , ,

It has been a while since I wrote on the weblog but there hasn’t been much to report. The weather has gone from one extreme to another and there is a definite hint of Autumn in the air already. We are getting loads of runner beans every visit now and we have been amazed at how prolific the four courgette plants are. Every time we go to the plots we bring home a carrier bag full of beans and at least two courgettes which seem to grow overnight. We had never eaten courgettes before but luckily we do enjoy them aswell as being able to give some to family and friends. We continue to dig up the potatoes and it seems like about 50% are blight free so not as bad as we thought and we haven’t had to buy any. The tomatoes have produced a few fruit but on the whole both the tomatoes and the cucumbers have been very disappointing. We shall have to try harder next year.

pumpkin

The pumpkin plant that survived is now enormous with quite a few smallish fruit and one very large beautiful golden orb which Rob has sat on a piece of carpet and looks very grand. The butternut squash and the one surviving melon plant are growing slowly. The lettuce plants have been very nice but have come to an end before the tomatoes have got started so some problems in the planning there.

 

 

sweetcorn

Both the baby corn and the big sweetcorn plants are thriving with cobs already swelling on the bigger plants so we are hoping for a good harvest from them.

We heard that we got 78 points in the local council competition but don’t really know what this means and so as we have received no congratulatory phone call we must assume that the judges did pop their heads into the lean to on that dreaded judgement day and we came out bottom of the class. Ah well.