Vegetable Grains: Sweet Corn Plants （玉米）

As defined in wikipedia, the fruit of a sweet corn plant is the corn kernels. The ear is a collection of kernels on the cob. The ear is wrapped by leaves called the husk. The silk in turn is the flower emerges from the husk. Both the silk and the husk are typically removed before cooking.

The kernels on the cob are best steamed or boiled in water and serve with butter. For freshly harvested sweet corn, it is sweet and juicy just by itself, it is best steamed and eaten plain.

It is relatively easy to plant sweet corn plants but you certainly need a garden or green house plot. There are different varieties of sweet corn plants and they can grow up to a height of between 1m to 2.5m tall. If you are new to planting and have a garden plot, this is definitely the crop for you to kick start your engine.

Materials you need

• At least a space of 2m by 1m either on ground for about 15 plants. I planted mine in 3 rows of 5 plants each. You need to have a plot height of about 2m.
• This illustration is designed and documented using a green house plot.
• I used the seeds from Japan. I love this variety as the plants are generally shorter (about 1m to 1.2 m), take up less plot space per plant and each ear produces tightly packed kernels.
• Although each ear is typically smaller in size compare to commercial hybrid sweet corn, it is super sweet and crunchy.

Fig. 1 Sweet corn seeds and the packaging

Step 1: plant the seeds directly onto the plot or in a pot. Refer to here if you need help to prepare the pot/soil.
Space them out about 5cm apart if you choose to first plant the seeds in the pot and later transfer to the plot.
For direct planting onto the plot, allocate at least 25 to 35cm spacing and bury the seeds at least 5cm deep into the soil or follow the instructions on the packaging. Not all seeds will germinate successfully; hence place 1 to 2 seeds in each alternate designated slot. Removed the weaker seedlings and keep the stronger plants.

One key reason to seed first in pot and transfer later is if your plot is expecting regular visitors like field mices. They will burrow into the soil and eat up all the seeds (they are delicious corn kernels to the mice). Place the pot in a place out of reach to the mice. They will not attack the seeds anymore once seedlings emerged.
Seeds typically take about 7 to 20 days to grow into seedlings suitable for transplant. Mine took about 15 days.

Step 2: Transfer the seedlings to the actual location you have prepared for the sweet corn plants to grow permanently if you adopt the 'pot then transfer later' method.

Fig 2. Sweet corn plants immediately after transplant from pot (top) and on week 3 after first seeded (below).

Step 3: Fertilised the plant once a week with organic fertiliser. Just dig a 5cm diameter hole about 5 to 8cm away from the main stem, scoop 1 tablespoon full of fertiliser into the hole and cover it. Once the plants got used to the new plot and the seedlings take roots, they will grow at tremendous rate.



Fig. 3 Sweet Corn Plants 3 weeks after transplant or 5 weeks after seeded (above) and 6 weeks after seeded (below)

Step 4: On week 7, ear of corn start to form on the plant, typically one ear of corn to each plant. Some may have two.



Fig. 4 Week 7 after first seeded, ears formed on the plants (red squares)

Step 5: By week 8, you will see the ear of corns grew in size on the plants.

Fig. 5 Fully grown corn plants with their ears

Step 6: Look out for the first sign of browning on the silk growing on the husk. This ear of corn is now ready for harvest

Fig. 6 A fully grown ear of corn with slightly brown silk growing. Ready for harvest.

I will be off for a break and the the next posting will be on the first Friday of year 2013. Happy New Year and See you all again in year 2013!



Disclaimer:

Information are documented to the best of my ability and your result may varies.

Products and brands mentioned directly or indirectly in this blog reflects the experience of the author and does not represent the views of the individual merchants. There are many factors like seeds condition, weather, actual soil mixed, individual planting habits etc which may affect your results.