How To Grow And Care For Sweet Corn

There are a great many different kinds of corn you can grow. If you really want to plant a lot of corn then you can plant them early and mid season kinds. Corn is something called monoecious. This means that they have both male and female flowers on each plant. Here are a few different kinds you can choose from.

1. open pollinated sweet corn - they have the regular corn taste but they quickly change sugar to starch. They have to be harvested at the perfect time
2. Super sweet corn - this kind will give you very sweet tasting corn kernels and they will be very crisp.
3. Kernels of sugary sweet corn - these are a hybrid. they only remain sweet for a week or so. They have a sot type texture, with a nice corn flavor.
4. Synergistic sweet corn - they have a mixture of sugary and super sweet kernels.

What is the best time of year to plant sweet corn

You can plant sweet corn in late spring or even early summer. They like warm soil to grow in. If the soil is too cold for them then they may not grow and will die out. So even though you might be able to pull off a mid to late summer, fall through winter is just not going to work.

How to care for sweet corn

Sweet corn can be planted about 2 weeks after the last frost has come. They like soil that is about 60 degrees. They like when the temperature is 60 to 90 outside. They can take anywhere up to 100 days to harvest. You should plant sweet corn in full sunlight this will help them grow much better. They also like well drained and loose soil to grow in. You should add compost to the soil in autumn before you are ready to do your planting.They need water every day, but make sure you do not over water them and leave the soil soaked they will not survive. After the stalks have become ten" then you will want to place a side layer of compost, they use a lot of nitrogen. You will want to do this again after they reach 12 inches as well. you will know when sweet corn is ready for harvest because the husk of the corn will be a green in color and the silk will be brown. Now if you pick a kernel and squish it the juice will be milky in color and not clear. You will want to harvest them early in the morning and put them into a cold bucket of water, this will keep them fresher.

What can be planted with sweet corn

Sweet corn likes to be planted with potatoes, squash, beans, and peas. Squash shades sweetcorn roots from sunlight. Additionally, the squash helps to prevent the soil on the surface from evaporating, and it suppresses weeds. The beans are benefited by the sweetcorn because they have a stable vertical structure to climb. If you have all three together, the beans complete the trifecta and draw in extra nitrogen, which benefits the other two.

What you should not plant with sweet corn

You should not plant sweet corn with berries or tomatoes. I've heard that this is true, but I have yet to find out why exactly. I looked into it, and though everyone says you should not grow sweet corn with tomatoes, I haven't found why. Feel free to share that with us!