Sweetcorn

[Oola]

I haven't sown my sweetcorn yet - I was going to start them off in pots and then transplant them a little later. Am I pushing it a bit by sowing them now, or will they be ok?

[Treehugger]

Hi Oola, I would say that you would be pushing it a bit now as they need as long a gorwing period as possible. Mine have been out in the ground for a couple of weeks now and they are just loving this hot weather that we are having. I'm sure that they grow a good couple of inches every day! Why not try buying baby plants to plant straight out and leave your seeds for next year?

[Oola]

I thought I might be pushing it a bit! I may try that Treehugger, the problem is I was going to put over quite a lot of my allotment over to them, because they take up so much room and I haven't dug a bed out for them here at home.

My naughty rabbits get through kale and sweetcorn at a rate of knots, so I was going to grow loads to try and supplement them at least for some of the year. Depending on how much a small sweetcorn plug costs, I might go for your suggestion. Am having trouble sourcing any kale seed too for some reason, it's not very popular....

[littlemiss]

hi oola, both wiggly wigglers and sarah raven do kale, but the organic catalogue do several different varieties (seven i think) as for the maize/sweetcorn, it is really too late to get a good plant, they like alot of warmth, polytunnels cloches or half plastic bottles are a good idea, they also need ground they can get their roots deep down into, the deeper the better as they have very long taproots, if you cant get any plugs its worth asking your local arable farmer as he will have acres and acres sown to maize and probably wont object to you taking rogue plants from the gateways or edge of the field, offer him some beer money and a dazzling smile and in my experience they shouldnt say no! you can also now get mini sweetcorn which you could try and grow in a polytunnel or greenhouse, hope that has been some help to you x

[littlemiss]

oh and just to mention, you had said somewhere that you have loads of chickweed on your allotment, up untill the second world war it was commonly grown and sold as a vegetable, its very nutritious and your bunnywabbits will love it. its good in salads or lightly steamed x

[lily]

Sweetcorn germinate quickly, so might still be worth a go to grow some from seed. Transplanted mine on a lovely calm sunny day, only to be followed by gale force winds the next day- so they look a bit the worse now. I have some black tuscan kale seeds left- email me if you'd like me to post them . They also germinate quickly and as they have a long growing time I don't think a latish start will matter.