ANYONE who is just starting to grow their own vegetables might want to consider sweetcorn, especially if they are keen to get children involved. It is, for the most part, easy to grow and the end result of corn on the cob is usually appreciated by all, no matter their age.
At first, I tried the 鈥渢hree sisters鈥� companion planting method, developed by Indigenous groups in North America. This means growing sweetcorn with two other types of plants, squash and beans, and they help each other thrive.
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Beans improve soil fertility because, as a legume (like peas and lentils), they have the ability to turn gaseous nitrogen from the air into soluble forms that plants can use. Corn grows up tall, providing a structure for the beans, which need some kind of physical support to climb up. Squashes are a large rambling plant, with big, flat leaves. Once they get going, they help suppress weeds.
As I found out, though, in the cooler and cloudier British climate, growing the three plants in among each other led to them doing poorly. This is probably because they were shading each other too much, says Matt Oliver at the .
If you want to nod to the companion method, Oliver recommends combining corn with just a small-fruiting variety of squash, such as 鈥淏uffy Ball鈥� or 鈥淟ittle Gem鈥�, which don鈥檛 need so much sun to ripen.
Just growing corn by itself produces a tall and majestic crop that will impress young gardeners. To help the corn plants pollinate each other, grow them in a square patch, rather than in rows.
A sunny patch of soil just 1 metre by 1 metre would be enough to grow about nine plants 鈥� almost a corn field.
The only tricky stage is getting the seeds, or kernels, to germinate. As corn is from warmer climes, if planted outside in the UK, the kernels can struggle in the cold, wet soil and go mouldy before they can sprout. Instead, start off the kernels in a lidded propagator, which is a plastic box with a clear lid that can be placed on a sunny windowsill so it acts like a miniature greenhouse.
Use a highly free-draining compost, so the kernels don鈥檛 become too moist, and bury them only 1 centimetre deep, as the top layer of compost will stay drier.
If your best efforts fail, in April and May, garden centres in the UK may sell sweetcorn 鈥減lug plants鈥� that look like a large blade of grass, where the germination has been done for you. These can be planted out when the risk of frost has passed.
Once the plants get going, they are fairly resilient, but in summer, it is worth trying to scare birds away from the ripening cobs. I rig up string barriers with dangling shiny things like old CDs. Your reward will be the best sweetcorn you have ever tasted.
What you need
A propagator 鈥� a plastic
box with a clear lid
Free-draining compost
Sweetcorn kernels or plug plants
A sunny patch of soil
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