Sweetcorn - waste of space!

[Millymollymandy]

Well it was really - have just managed a 3rd meal from nearly 20 plants and that's the lot. This year the plants were stunted, and only had one big cob and one smaller one. The birds pecked all the cobs and the first few we had were tasteless. The ones I picked yesterday had some going over (but which were actually the only ones with any flavour despite being chewy) and the rest either had smut/maggots or were just plain rotting and slimey and stinky, so I couldn't even give them to the chickens.

I've never had rotting cobs before - do you think it could be because I have planted this ridiculously invasive Jack be Little pumpkin in between - there's only 2 plants but they are about 2.5 feet high and have swamped the whole sweetcorn bed and everything else in it and I have to keep chopping it off the path so I can get by, possibly making it too humid?

I shan't be planting this type of pumpkin again as I've never seen anything grow like this before and 6 - 8 plants would cover my entire veg patch which is about 190m2.

[Odsox]

I thought I was going to have a dismal crop this year. All the plants had 2 cobs and most of them had 3 cobs, but when I pulled back the coverings of the second cobs, not one had kernels. Obviously there was no pollen about when those ones flowered.
But ... all the first cobs were huge and chock-a-block with kernels and I now have 17 x 250g packs of kernels in the freezer plus what we ate fresh, so more than enough to keep us going with all the other veg too.

BTW MMM, arthritic fingers have prevented the "normal" de-kernelling of the cobs, so this year we bought a tool to do it. Cost the grand total of €7 something and works faster than OH can de-husk the next one.

[oldfella]

We have had 6 cobs that were eatable from 14 plants, which only grew about 1 mt high.

[PossibleBoris]

I planted about ten plants - all grew to less than one metre and did nothing else.

In the end I pulled them out and used to space to thin out my brocolli.

[grahamhobbs]

We done alright this year, a great crop from the 16 in the polytunnel (although only 1 cob from each plant) and 2 from 6 planted outside, which is amazing because they are normally all devoured by our freindly squirrels before we arrive.

[Millymollymandy]

AND I had a dodgy stomach this morning!

It's sadder for us because we can't buy sweetcorn to eat here unlike in the UK, so that's it for us until next year. And not a single one was very nice.

[prison break fan]

Can we know more about the tool Odsox please? pbf.

[gregorach]

It's been a funny year... Mine hasn't done much, but I was very late getting it out. I think it's always worth try though, because it's great when it does work.

That's the thing about gardening - nothing is guaranteed.

[Odsox]

Can we know more about the tool Odsox please?

Details here ... http://www.oxo.com/p-482-corn-stripper.aspx
I got mine from Amazon.

[prison break fan]

Cheers Odsox, just what I need! pbf.

[dave45]

Mine is underwhelming this year too.... planted a mixture of fresh seed and 2nd year of F1 hybrid's children.... no significant difference between the two!

[Millymollymandy]

Interesting - wonder why everyone's has been less good this year? I don't think the warm dry spring should have made a huge difference as mine wasn't planted out until (can't remember exactly) about mid May, and I watered as per normal when it was dry. This is the 2nd time in 7 years that it's only got about 3 1/2 foot tall - normally much bigger.

[bonniethomas06]

Blimey, be thankful yours is ready - ours went out a little late due to a failed experiment in late spring involving shop-bought plugs, newspaper and a no-dig method, but the cobs are still a bit puny and the tassles are still bright pink.

[happyhippy]

Sorry to hear your crop failed!I used the 3 sisters method,and mine were fine.I've been picking cobs for probably 3 weeks now.I did'nt do anything special except rested the ground over last winter,and top dressed it last spring with my own compost before I planted them.Hopefully you'll have better luck next time!

[wabbit955]

never have any luck with them gave up now as only got small space so more producetive thing have gone in