Sweetcorn not maturing

[turkeytwizzler]

Hi folks,

This is my first year growing vegetables and have had a fairly successful harvest from a small plot in my back garden.

However, I've grown sweetcorn and from what I can tell everything was going to plan, the plants grew to a good height, and tasseled. The ears appeared, and grew, after a while the silks went brown but the kernels never really filled the ear to the top (they've stopped about half way) and have stayed green.

Do you think there's any hope for them?

I'm assuming not. From what I've read, poor pollination might be my issue as I've got a very small pot and perhaps haven't spaced the plants enough.

Thanks in advance.

[rainbowgardener]

I agree, sounds like a pollination issue. Each kernel has to be individually pollinated with its own grain of pollen or it does not fill out.

For that reason, corn can be difficult to grow in a small plot, since you need lots of grains of pollen flying around. Closer spacing helps with this and planting in a square block, not a row.

[turkeytwizzler]

ok cool. I did go for squares rather than rows, but perhaps their just too tightly packed.

oh well. Try again next year!


Thanks for the response

[garden5]

Also, [url=https://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=4424.0]here is a good resource[/url] for learning about hand-pollinating corn.

[rootsy]

Is it a smooth transition from full ripe kernel to white kernel or is it abrubt? Abrupt, probably pollination issue but if it is a smooth transition, most likely a nutrient / water deficiency.

[jal_ut]

As Rootsy says, if the change is abrupt it is a pollination issue. However, don't let that stop you from harvesting them when the lower part is just right for eating. Enjoy!

[Gary350]

Corn does not do well in small crops unless you plant it very close together. When I as living at the other house my garden was very small I planted 6 rows of corn rows were 1 ft apart and seeds were 8" apart in each 20 ft row. A lot of corn in a small space gives you a lot of pollen per square inch. The wind alway blew across my garden in the same direction so my 20 ft rows ran parallel to the wind. I experemented with different shape crops 6x6, 10x10, 8x15, the 6x20 was the best as long as the 20 ft row was planted parallel to the wind this keep the pollen from blowing away before it has a chance to get on the silks.