Kitchen Garden Forum

Can you help me with this? I'm still quite new to growing sweetcorn.

This year my plants seem to have the "antennae" flowers at the tops, but no silky tassels (or the early cobs) below. By comparison, my neighbour's have both.

I thought the pollen fell from one onto the others. Some of my top flowers look quite advanced (see top L.H side of picture below). Does this look like a problem to anyone? Will it produce more pollen bearing parts to cope with the late arrival of the cobs? Can I do anything to remedy this?



It's possible my plants were started slightly too late this year, so it may be my fault.

Mine did the same thing Colin, but eventually the cobs do appear and there is still enough pollen to pollinate the silks. Mine are almost ready for picking - but I sowed real early, so don't worry!

Mine are at exactly the same stage Colin (planted late too) - glad you asked the question. I was just ignoring them and hoping Nature knew best, but it's nice to have a reassuring reply - thank you tricia

Apart from one cob which is at ground level on a plant only 12" high , mine look the same too. I'm glad I'm not alone too.

I asked about late sowing because I noticed somthing similar with my French Beans. They were only a couple of feet up the canes and started producing fully mature bean pods.

I figured that the plant knew when in the season it was, and was getting on with the survival process, however mature it was.

I have put one lot of liquid feed on the sweetcorn. Will doing more like on Tomatoes help? I also have the option of some manure (ok, I suppose it should already by in the soil beneath!); wasn't sure if this would just give a lot of leafy growth or if that in turn would help the plants produce more food.