Growing Corn in a Cool Climate
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2024
- For years I avoided trying to grow sweetcorn here in Ireland, as I thought this crop needed more heat to grow than we normally get, and I didn’t want to take up space in the polytunnels with a crop that was not very high yielding. But in the past two seasons we have been able to produce edible cobs of sweetcorn under cover in the polytunnels, outside and in large containers, and although there are still issues to resolve, it is definitely a crop worth growing again.
0:00 Finally growing sweetcorn
0:50 A tough climate for sweetcorn
2:24 First attempt in two polytunnels
3:39 Grew again this year
4:42 Three Sisters in a polytunnel
6:24 Three Sisters outside
7:56 Sweetcorn in grow bags
9:52 Things to explore
11:26 Perhaps not in a polytunnel
12:49 Epilogue
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As a commercial corn grower in the usa. The main thing to remember with corn is its a high nitrogen user. Sweet corn is less physically robust than dent or flint corns. So it can be pulled down. The raised beds really heat the roots and encourage faster development. The height difference in polytunnel and outside is due to internode length being directly tied to temperature. In my climate later planted corn is always taller than early planted corn due to more abundant heat. Corn while frost tolerant has a quirk it is when very small before the growing point emerges from below ground. Felid corn in the usa is often planted just before the last frost day.
Thank you for all that helpful info!
In my experience sweetcorn has nowhere near the cold tolerance of field corn varieties. I would have thought it would be the opposite, because high sugar content is an antifreeze, but it just ain't so.
I guess a lot depends on how much you like a crop when it comes to its planting worthiness. Having grown up in North America, I adore fresh corn on the cob. I now live in west Wales and grow a variety called ‘early bird’ both in the polytunnel and outdoors. We enjoy a long cropping time- from about mid August til the end of September. Thank you for sharing different methods of growing. I wouldn’t have guessed that container grown corn would’ve been so successful!
I'm no expert, my attempts failed abysmally. But I have watched a few videos. One of the tips that might benefit your lack of full pollination was clumping. I don't reckon your pollytunnel would suffer because of the constant wind flow carrying pollen down the rows, but outside the wind blows from every direction. Therefore it's more prudent to have more than one or two rows side by side to increase pollination. In essence, the big fields would produce higher pollination results in the middle of the crop. Any of you pro farmers notice that effect?
@@nonyadamnbusiness9887 that is all true. But he said he was growing open pollinated corn. In all practical sense it’s somewhere in between conventional felid corn and sweet corn. Looking at sweet corn’s shriveled seed you can see why it is not as resilient as a starch filled kinds of corn seed. My frost date is april 15. Feild corn is often planted april 7 if conditions are fit. Sweet corn is usually apil 21- early may.
Some context that's often left out of discussions of Three Sisters plantings is that they were used with older styles of field varieties rather than modern fresh varieties. Field corn is stronger than sweetcorn in general, and older varieties were even stronger and taller, making it much better at supporting the beans and less likely to get shaded out. With dry beans, field corn, and winter squash, you also don't have to hunt around through the dense jungle of growth to harvest them, you can just wait for everything to senesce and dry down. And perhaps most importantly, the goal of the system was to allow for production of staple foods with minimal labor input, which it does well, but it doesn't perform nearly as well when the goal is to get a high-value yield from limited space.
That all makes a lot of sense. An interesting challenge to see if a method or system like the Three Sisters that was developed for one context and with particular variations of the crops, can be adapted to another context and different types. I like the idea that it could be a very low maintenance method, even if it doesn't produce as much in a limited area. In both trials inside and outside I decided to let the beans go to produce dried seed, rather than hunt them down for the fresh pods, which definitely helped but will have to see how it all does.
Also, in terms of protein quality, corn and beans complement each other perfectly. Winter squash is also very nutrient-dense. So the food that you do get out of the Three Sisters is of a very high quality, and easy to store for winter.
The inner part of the sweet corn is also quite valuable. If u dry it, it s very good replacement for coal in a BBQ, burns very hot but retains the heat for a long time.
How interesting,I am always looking for readily available fuels to eke out my wood.I will put the middle of the corn to one side.
In Germany its actually sold commercially in some stores. Always thought throwing them out is a waste
@@unlimitedx53 is it reasonable priced?
Do you mean middle of the stalk or middle of the cob?
That is very interesting. I will have to try it out next year!
The great thing about corn is that for 10,000 years American Indians have been adapting corn to every environment on two continents and preserving every mutation. There's a lot of variety to work with. In north Florida I try to grow my sweetcorn as early as I can. I'm breeding a hybrid swarm of any SE variety with an advertised maturity date of less than 75 days, in the manner of Joseph Lofthouse. I plant February 15th and I'm out by the end of May before the army worm and ear worm get too bad. Planting early, I find it just stops growing when night temperatures drop below 50 F. There's a RUclips channel called "Veggie Boys" from north Pennsylvania. They plant sweetcorn extra early in shallow trenches covered with clear plastic and poke a hole over the plants after they emerge. That method might work for you too. I'm impressed that you get such a good crop with such cool nights.
Your hybrid swarm sounds like a very cool exploration!
@@REDGardensLook up Joseph Lofthouse for more detailed information. My issue, I think, is that very short maturity sweetcorn is bred up north under 16+ hours of daylight. We max out at 14 hours.
As a small-scale food crop specialist from Ontario, my feedback would be:
a) The Three Sisters has unfortunately been widely misunderstood and misrepresented, and thereby ruined its usage in non-native contexts. The corn, squash, and bean varieties were very specific types …. and did not result in what most people nowadays end up with, which is a crowded mess and poor results with all three; b) the term for an ear of corn that has its kernels removed, is cob. You were talking about ears of corn and shucked ears of corn; c) Canada and the States, have a good number of purpose-bred corn cultivars for short seasons and cool nights … that do not grow taller than five feet. You are using the wrong cultivars for your overall conditions. Spancross, for example, is a two ear, 5’ tall, 50 day OP cultivar; OP Buhl is slightly taller and slighter later. You might also consider Sunnyvale, Simonet, Early Sunglow, Fisher’s Earliest, etc.; d) l would recommend using root trainer growing modules or even deeper narrow containers - and planting the starts earlier. Corn grows a long tap root quickly upon germination … it will be at least three times longer than the visible shoot. It is vital to not compromise that tap root development and growth in any way, as was the case with your starts ….doing so affects vegetative development, and sets the harvest back weeks; and lastly, e) while there are number of corn cultivars that germinate and/or develop well in cool soil, ideally starts are best grown in warm outdoor or pre-warmed hoop house soil. That also allows for an earlier harvest.
All good points, thanks. And I really should know to call them ears, not cobs!
The variety selection over here is limited. None of the ones you suggested are available in Europe as far as I can tell, and not a lot of solid information to be able to compare the ones that are available, so I will have to keep searching and trialing.
I think I will try to do a trial between transplants and direct sown, and use of different containers and stages of transplanting, as it would be cool to see the difference that you mentioned, and to figure out a method that works well for different contexts that I am trying to grow in. I did try both direct sowing and transplanting for a batch of the same seed sown at the same time last year, and didn't notice any difference in growth, but perhaps I was not paying enough attention.
Thank you for your reply.
Yes unfortunately the corn cultivars l mentioned are still not being imported.
Hopefully, you will be able to find equivalents. The key attributes, as they need to be in the maritime or our north as well are: good cool-soil emergence, good cool soil tolerance, short height, and rapid growth focused on ear formation and not stalks.
I grow a small amount of sweetcorn every year outside in Ireland, get at least 3 ears on each, usually filled almost all the way to the tip and usually decently sized. Start them in March, let them get to 4 inches roughly, then transplant regardless of weather under cover. Fertilise with cold pressed liquid seaweed as seedlings and in the early days, protects it from the cold. Fruithill farm do a biodynamic sweetcorn seed that is excellent.
Also those transplants are left too long before planting, roots should not be curled at the bottom, it sets them back around 3 weeks.
Good to know! I had just assumed it would be really difficult or impossible to get a good yield. Thanks for the pointers.
I've been having success with 30" between rows of sweet corn plants 8"-10" apart. Vining squashes every 4'-6' in between the corn rows. Bush squashes at the north and south ends and bean every 3rd or 4th corn plant along the perimeter. I only have to pull weeds once then the squashes cover enough to where they aren't even an issue anymore. By the time the corn is ready the squashes start dropping enough so I can walk through to harvest without tromping over their fruits then I harvest squashes and throw cardboard down on the plants and cut cornstalks all over that. Add whatever organic material and then till in the spring and do it all over again. Been using just compost, diluted urine and pond gunk as my means of fertility for years and everything just continues to do its thing swimmingly. Thank you very much for your content. It makes me happy seeing your videos and watching the progression of your farm.
That is so cool that you have a system figured out for your context! Thanks for sharing the details.
Would you say it was too much a tassel? I'll keep an ear out for future videos.
haha!
I appreciate this comment 😂
This was my first year growing corn on my microfarm in Norway. It was tge sweetest corn i have ever tasted. Im going to try it again next year.
It is so great to be able to eat corn fresh like that!
Wondering if planting corn early in bags in the tunnel and moving bags outside when weather warms would be possible. The bags may be too heavy IDK.
I think that would work quite well!
Welcome home Bruce. Hope the weather holds for your stay in Ontario. Safe travels
I live in a climate where a day with max temp under 20º is rare as a bigfoot sighting but I always like your explorations.
Have a nice vacation!
Haha, that is a very different climate! Thanks!
Time to try sweet potatoes! I bet they would be horrible outside in your climate, possibly rotting in the ground, but they might work decently in the polytunnel especially if you can get the soil temperatures above 25C. They don't naturally climb, but they can easily be trained onto nylon netting to save space. In my climate they're far easier to grow than "Irish" potatoes and they store a lot better in the house.
Yes! I did! Growing a load in one of the polytunnels this year and looking forward to digging them up in the next few weeks.
I read the top three comments and they said all I had to say, and even better than I could have. You have an amazing audience here Bruce, so just a comment to feed the algorithm and say thanks.
The knowledge and skills of the people who comment is so cool, and quite humbling!
Corn is the most amazing crop! I think you are doing great. In my opinion the pumpkin is not necessary and mulch can be used instead, beans do great with corn.. What about trying cool weather growing Andean varieties?... Right now I am at 2600 mts in the andes trying to grow a seed bed of about 10 peruvian varieties that grow over 3000 mts. And remember the canes when dry are very sweet as sugar cane, you can peel and chew the sap out of them!
They would be cool to try, if I can source some seed.
Hi Bruce, another awesome video! So excited to see what’s next!
Regarding the 3 sisters, Carol Deppe’s ‘The Resilient Gardener’ covers in depth each of the 3 plants and growing them in concert. As I remember the varieties of corn and bean, as well as their general location in the planting block or bed are critical. She writes from the Willamette Valley in the PNW, so she’s no quite as constrained by the weather as you are, but it’s still a fairly cool climate for most traditional corn varieties. If you don’t already have its a wonderful book to add to the collection, along with all of her other works. (An aside: I’d be very curious to get a look at your bookshelf and see the resources and authors you recommend!)
I will have to have a look at that! Thanks!
I have her Cascade Ruby-Gold flint corn, which is a great variety to grow where corn is not typically grown.
I live in York which will have similar temperatures to you in ireland. One problem I found with sowing early was that the tassels on those plants tended to drop their pollen way before the silks were ready to collect it. I Googled this and it said it can happen if the plants experience cold when young...so it is a kind of 'bolting'. So now I sow late April but keep in the greenhouse and only plant out in early June. This seems to work OK for me with harvest period being early to late September. Some hand pollination helps too.
That is interesting, and something I will try to be observant of. Thanks.
Very interesting. I am trying something similar but as I live in a warmer climate, with short frosts, I have more time for a late season. Great video and nice background in Canada. 💪
Great video as always!
Too funny, I was just saying to my husband, boy oh boy that Ireland forest sure looks a lot like our Canadian forest, lol. 😁 You are living the dream, my friend. You can successfully grow sweet corn. I have given up trying. I would have to build a bomb shelter caged greenhouse fort knox to grow corn, haha. I wonder if the raccoons will find you. 😅 I think it's really interesting that the bagged corn did so well. I think all that black probably increased the heat units for you. It would be interesting to see if 4 plants per bag would still perform as well.
Yes, living the dream! It is so great to be able to have a good supply of sweetcorn fresh from the gardens. And to not have pests like raccoons to compete with!
Can't wait for the upcoming videos! Always so much interesting stuff to learn
Down here in Germany its always a challenge to grow, often long cold springs, but I do it every year. I've never tried to start in pots and transplant, just straight in the ground. When I first started, I tried to succession plant thinking I could extend the harvest. It never worked well enough. With the cold springs, germination was a struggle and I frequently replanted. This timing struggle seemed to last the whole year as not all plants were tasseling together which led to pollination and kernel development short comings. Now I just heavily sow, thin them out and some of the thinings I transplant to fill the non-germination gaps.
I didn't expect the transplants of corn to do well, but seemed to be ok, and had better results than direct sowing.
They looked good at your place! I've seen others do it. I'm not quite there yet. I'm kinda overwhelmed with all the other seedlings, ie... tomatoes, etc. The hybrids are finicky and not much germination below soil temps of 50 degrees. I used to be able to get a lot of variety choices via my army post office box, but now I'm faced with limited choices. Fortunately Germany seems to be ever expanding their variety offerings, but nothing like the states. It'll take a few years til I find one that works for me, taste, etc. I tried golden bantam this year, not so good, so I'll try something different next year.@@REDGardens
The three sisters plantings make a lot more sense once you try them with the varietals that were originally used. Those corn plants grow to 15 feet (5 meters)…
I grew up growing sweet corn on an Island off Vancouver BC… Start your corn much earlier… if you can start it in a greenhouse with grow lights, great, then harden it around last frost and transplant it outdoors shortly after. Those young short plants are also much easier to row cover or use a temporary polly tunnel… In other words, only finish them outdoors, once they taller than a meter (3 feet).
I happen to have a tropical greenhouse that is heated via a heated swimming pool. My son loves corn on the cob, and loves asking for it on his Birthday (Mid December). So I grow sweet corn under grow lights in the tropical greenhouse, and stagger the maturity dates to coincide with slightly before and after his Birthday… So we are eating corn on the cob for the entire month of December, and slightly into January. Which is really nice.
I saw you trying to justify your growing space used based solely on weight of harvest… That is a huge mistake… Base it off of the value per square meter rather than the weight… What would people in Ireland be willing to par for fresh organic corn on the cob vs tomatoes? Factor in labor to plant, grow, and harvest, and you are closer to the real value.
Corn for December and January! wow!
Your points about weight and value is a good one. I would definitely like some corn rather than more cucumbers, but the main learning for me is that if I can grow corn outside, then I should focus on getting a better crop outside, rather than taking up space in the polytunnel.
I always love yield videos!
Thank you
Another great video and trial. I’ll try to grow sweet corn outside next year
You did great with those growbags, wow! I wouldn't have thunk it. I worked on my "uncles" sweet corn farm for several summers and generally hung around in the summers I didn't work. It was 60+ acres of corn and they were growing 20+ varieties per year and usually would try 3-5 new ones per year. Their aim was to have fresh picked daily sweet corn from Canada Day to Halloween. That involves planting in March here in BC's capital city. Some years there would be snow on the ground and corn seed going in. They grow the early corn under massive Remay covers and they will take the off several times to cultivate and water the crop.
The early corns (all hybrid varieties btw) would usually be "extra sweet" but by mid July the "super sweet" varieties start to ripen up. They have "super sweet" and "extra sweet" varieties of Peaches N Cream, Yellow, White and Yellow Crunchie. Some varieties you grow are as good as others for early corn, or hot summer corn, some types aren't sweet, some types don't hold, some have two bumper cobs ready at the same time, some the second cob will be ripe a week later.
It was a LOT to juggle and now with a new generation running things they have simplified and now have one Peaches, one Yellow available at any time, instead of 4-5 combinations of peaches, yellow, white and extra and super sweet. They do a lot less remay covering so the corn isn't ready by Canada day anymore and they cut things off around Canada Thanksgiving.
My biggest take away from thier farm was: try lots of varieties and find which ones work best in your typical weather. It looks like a remay covered bed of grow-bags could yield you a pretty good crop. By the way, I didn't mention this up top but they used to leave the remay fabric on until the crop was almost 4' tall. Farm workers would take the covers up for water or cultivation and then put them back over with a little more slack each time for the corn to grow up. Usually about 4 times on the earliest corn.
Hope you find something in there helpful!
Wow, that is a big task, getting corn available for that length of time. That is something I would love to try, as it is such a great vegetable to have as the focus of summer and autumn meals! Thanks for sharing the details of that kind of operation.
I loved the chart with Irish weather. This year summer was on August 1st between 4-6pm 😂
Always fun discovering that you can grow something you didn't think your climate would allow, especially if that is outside! I tried to grow corn in containers this year (have succeded when I tried several years ago), but they all (!) died when I transplanted them (every single one, of every single type, in every single container). Not sure what I did wrong (didn't transplant too early judging by youtube-videoes, but I suspect that is what I did)
Yes it is! I wonder if frost killed off all your seedlings?
@@REDGardens That would be a logical suggestion based on what I told you, but what I did not write was that I transplanted them in larger containers indoors. Either they didn't like the transplant-process (even though I tried to be gentle), or it might have been a watering-issue (not sure if it would have been to wet or to dry)
I did the 3 sisters successfully here in the Midlands in England. 35 corn, beans around the edges and 3 squash growing through. Great harvest from everything.🤠👍
Very cool. What size area was it in?
@@REDGardens 3m X 3m.
A+ Thanks!!
You bet!
Nice work :)
Sweetcorn is a pretty common crop on our allotment site, and we normally get a decent result from the plants. My big issue this year was with germination being really poor. I got the F1 Golden Hind verity from Mole Seeds, after seeing their seeds packets in a fair few of your videos. I was planning on having a full bed of sweetcorn, and giving lots of seedling plants away to other plot holders.
It must have just been a bad batch. Because all the other packets I got from them have done very well regards germination this year. Out of 250 seeds, I got 25 plants for myself, and maybe 50-60 I gave out to a few people on the site. Sweetcorn really isn't that hard to start, the trick is normally timing them to be transplanted before they outgrow cells/pots you started them in. Same as squash, tomatoes, and the like.
Germination issues aside, they produced sturdy 5ft ish plants. They are a super sweet smaller verity, and they actually did pretty well given our awful summer up here. If you can find a shorter, quick growing sweetcorn like that, but open pollinated. Then planting something like that in blocks of say 25-30 in the poly may work out.
That would allow for channels of sunlight, so each bed gets at least a few hrs of direct sunlight throughout the day. Plus, it would help with air flow through the poly tunnel. 5x5 sections of sweetcorn don't take up much room. So you're going to want another tall growing plant in between, like tomatoes. Or maybe some dwarf tomatoes like Sean's Yellow, which grew to 5ft ish height with a good crop of nice sized yellow tomatoes.
I'd keep anything tall, and dense to the back of the poly. That way, if it is casting a lot of shade, it isn't really affecting many other plants in there. You're in each of them all the time, so you already have a pretty good idea how the levels of sunlight change throughout the day/seasons. Here in Ireland, we need to harvest as much of it as we can.
July here on the Tyrone, Donegal border was pretty grim. It's been a rough year for some crops like tomatoes, chillies, and potatoes. I think really hot/dry weather in May through until mid-June hurt some plants getting established. Then two weeks of dark skies and thunder warning for the end of June, and July was nothing but dark skies and lashing rain 24/7.
I grow corn, in Tyrone, and have no problem getting harvests every year. I sow Swift F1 in mid-April and usually get 3-4 cobs per plant in August.
Excellent! Thanks for sharing the variety you grow.
@@REDGardens Tanks for your videos, they really are excellent. I love your data driven approach and the way you share your results, good and bad. By the way, I sow in a polytunnel and plant outside in a block of usually 16-24 plants. I consider it one of the "banker" crops as I have never had any disease or pest problems with it.
nice. My climate is only insignificantly warmer and almost as humid as yours. I never trailed the 3 sisters, but I plant sweetcorn and squash successfully in the same space. I plant the corn as dense as recommended (rows 40cm apart, 7-5 cm inter plant distance in the rows. Then I plant every 3ed or 4th row 1 squash plant in-between the rows. Squash is a bit slower than if grown alone, but usually fine.
Cool, thanks for sharing the details.
there is some sweet corn that says it is 85 day corn. It's Sweet or Sugar something maybe Bantam or Candy. The Japanese hull-less popping corn that MI Gardener sells is 85-day. I've not grown the Japanese yet. I had a very small yield in some plants I planted late from seed and during a terrible drought and heat indexes into 110 to 118 for weeks, so through a miserable July and a bad August. Everything had a low yield. Some generic 25 cent a package cherry tomato seeds that come up voluntary (I've had 2 more plants come up very late in September in some potting soil I started okra in and after the one good rain we got). Those tomatoes do well in our progressively worsening heat and drought in the summer and have come back for 4 or 5 years at least. My Shih Tzus pick and eat them and rdrop the seeds around this fenced-in area with 2 beds but mainly they come up in the beds. i probably got 12 voluntary ch.tom plants., 60 sunflowers and too many lemon basil plants.
you may be back in Canada, but you brought your lilt with you 👍
yep!
Happy belated thanksgiving
🙂
happy thxgiving
🙂
Nice heads!
Golden Batam grows well in Finland with a little trick we use gigantic row cover over the corn so its like a polytunnel.
Small area 2m x 4m gave us 7kg of corn to freezer plus couple kilos to eat fresh.
Thanks for the details! I want to try a floating row cover next year.
@@REDGardens Thank you for a awesome content!
This row cover method we install begining of September as it is protecting us from early frost that we normally have.
And it gave us around 1 to 1.5 month of extra grow time.
But we are interested to try full cycle with a row cover. There might be some benefit for cooler nights plus extra heat in the days.
Bruce, I swear you're a mind reader! I was just thinking about growing some corn outside next year (in Galway, sadly without a poly tunnel since I'm renting). This video has been really, really helpful and I look forward to a follow up next year. What were you feeding your corn in the grow bags over the summer? I've got some large wooden planters I was going to try, but I wonder if the black plastic helped retain the heat and improved your crop. I might look into painting them or finding some way to insulate them when I grow mine.
Hay, hope it works out for you! In the grow bags I had added a general purpose fertiliser at the starts dn then liquid fed with dilute urine during the growing season.
I have successfully grown Swift and Incredible corn in NW England. I start them in yogurt pots of compost under cover in April to plant out in May as long as frost isn’t predicted. I feed with chicken pellets and diluted urine. I remove the shoots from the base. Most plants give 2 good cobs.
Sounds like varieties I should try.
@REDGardens I was just so pleased that, for once, I seemed to be growing something more efficiently, ha ha! You have the award for everything else!!
@@AJWGBFX Haha, I find it so strange that people assume I am an expert on everything! Only learning here!
I grow mine in the polytunnel and found that tapping the stalks improved pollination and gave full cobs. Tried outdoors but they blew out of the ground in a gale (we're very exposed here)
That tapping trick does help. I Also found that the tassels touching the plastic tend to shake in the wind, which seems to do the same thing.
Very interesting story on growing corn. I would like to know what liquid food you used with the container grow bags. Thank you for sharing on this as growing in Canada sweet corn is difficult for us.
I am surprised that growing sweetcorn in Canada is difficult as most areas have a lot warmer summers than we do in Ireland.
I use dilute urine and a bought in organic liquid fertiliser to feed the plants in grow bags.
Not a corn grower but a hybrid approach might serve you. Direct seed into the grow bags but keep the bags in the poly-tunnel until past the danger of frost, then relocate the bags outside and start growing something else inside.
I think that might work well, thanks.
@@REDGardenssorry for the repeat comment, I scrolled down and saw several others suggesting the same thing.
after binging your content it looks like you are already developing a pretty complicated scheme for your tunnel so it may well not be practical. If you do go that route, I suggest using a furniture dolly to save your back when you relocate the bags.
I look forward to this years trials as your other trials have been really well put together and the data you collected is top-notch.
Corn is dessert in Asia. Would be nice if there was a variety that put more into the cob than stalks.
While you're in Canada, try to pick up some Orchard Baby Sweet, it's a Canadian, small cob variety of sweet corn that matures in 65 days (in an ideal climate). Combine that with growing them in mounds that warm up faster and you might have a winner in the Irish climate :). At least it's an early variety that can extend the season! Oh, and it's not an F1 so you can save seeds from it.
BTW, in my Northern European, wet climate I also struggle to grow good sweet corn. It definitely helps to restrict the amount of cobs on the plant, I limit them to two. I think I also removed the tillering stalks, but it's been a while since I grew it. Nobody in my family likes corn except for me, that's why.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Grow F1 Swift here in the UK, which works well. One bean (Cobra) per plant. 1 squash / courgette per 6 corn. Heavy feeders.
Thanks.
A very interesting video Bruce , thanks.
I’ll try growing sweetcorn again but my allotment is about 58 degrees north in Scotland so the frost free growing window is very tight.
Not sure if you can grow other varieties that suit a colder climate?
Enjoy your time with your family in Canada.
The frost free window does need to be ling enough, but can be extended with crop protection.
Being of native American heritage, and having grown up on a 30 acre farm learning how to grow vegetables from my grandparents. I can tell you that the 'Three sisters' method of growing was used by the native American tribes in the hotter regions of North America, such as the South, midwest, and western states. The main purpose of using the three sisters methods was to provide shade and cooler temperatures to the roots of the corn and beans, and to retain the moisture in the soil to prevent the hot sun from drying out the soil. I honestly don't think there is a compelling enough reason for you to use the three sisters method in the climate of Ireland. The three sisters method works well in hot and dry climates because of the reasons I mentioned above. But it does not work well in cool and wet climates because it restricts air flow and retains moisture which leads to fungus, disease, and pest issues; exactly as you experienced. My advice would be to use the growing bags outside in such a climate. As you already know that this method works well in your climate.
Thank you for that comment, it all makes sense.
I decided to try a variation of the Three Sisters mainly because it is so often talked about and wanted to see if it would succeed or fail. I agree that there probably isn't a compelling enough reason to use this method in Ireland, but by trying it I can perhaps show others how and why it doesn't work in this climate, and it provides a useful opportunity to learn.
I've been growing sweet corn for years in West Cork. Usually there's no problem getting it to mature provided it is started and planted outside after frost is finished. The biggest probably is rats! Rats have obliterated my crop 80%of the time. So frustrating. As soon as its mature it's a race to harvest between me and the rats and it's a pity to have to pick and freeze it or store it. It's so delicious if eaten same day its picked. I tried growing in the tunnel this year in hope of fending off the rats better but they still got a third of the crop and I had to prematurely harvest😂. Also you do need to plant in bunches not lines to help pollination. I had pollinated in the pollytunnel this year as there's no wind to help it happen the natural way.
Ah, rats! They can really be a problem in the garden, and glad I have the population under control around here so they didn't get at my crop.
Lovesweet corn.Tried the three sisters last season (SH), had to use snips to harvest beans or chance of damaging cron stalks. My understanding was that it was a dry crop harvest. So this year I will plant and leave till the end when they start to go brown. Corn is (popping /flour variety), beans (better suited dry varieties) and crown pumpkin. Had poor propagation for my sweet corn this year though, pushing it if I want it but it sooo good.... also was going to swap sunflower for the corn but found out sunflower and pumpkin, I think do NOT get along at all, like toxic not get on.
That is interesting about the sunflower and pumpkin not getting along. I am about to make a video about my explorations in a climate that is not really suited for this context. And I think growing for dried beans and corn is probably a more appropriate approach.
@@REDGardens , my bad double checked . it was sweet potato and sunflower. the two types of pumpkin i was going to try were Crown and Teddy Bear. Teddy bear for the fresh and Crown for the dried. I grow Oyster mushroom (native) initially only for food source but have come to realise the great potential for 'quickening the wood chip decomposition'. Tiger worms love the mycelium in my worm farms. This my attempt to build soil health and resilience
You may want to check into growing double rows of sweet corn. You can double you corn in almost the same space.
Intenssive organic is hard.
Maybe you should put a mirror on the side of a raised bed and plant your corn there. Double the sun usage.
After seeing that clip before of the storm that blew down your polytunnel in the past, I’m surprised that you didn’t have any problems with your outdoor corn plants getting blown over. Seems like you get some fairly strong winds there, but maybe that’s more in the winter months?
Thankfully we didn't get a storm like that this year!
@@REDGardensGlad to hear that! Thanks for the great videos
I'm surprised you can't get corn on the cob in the supermarkets there, plenty of it here in England. It's (unsurprisingly) not as good as your own fresh picked though, the sugar starts to turn to starch the moment it leaves the plant so they need cooking quickly for best taste. I leave the 'leaves' around the cob on for cooking as it steams them, keeping in the moisture, also leaves on for freezing too. My growing conditions are similar, but a bit worse than yours and so grow a lot in a PT too including the corn, I chose a dwarf fast growing 'Swift F1' which gave a reasonable crop, but could have been better. You might find the dwarf suits you better in the PT as you can get it all on the North facing side or end so they don't shade any other plants. I was also surprised yours grew so well at 3 in a bag! They don't seem to mind being overcrowded at all, mine were one per bag, but I think suffered from not being started early enough, rubbish weather and maybe not enough nutrients. I grew in bags so no matter what kind of Summer we had I could move them in or out, glad I did, I wouldn't have had any if they'd been outside. Enjoy your holiday, looking forward to more content.
I have occasionally seen it in the shops around here (in the country away from bigger cities), but always pathetic looking, from very far away, and really expensive. Not what I would consider an option.
I want to try the Swift F1, as a few people have recommended it to me.
They didn't seem to be bothered too much by the 3 plants in the bag, but I did supply a constant amount of moisture and a lot of fertility.
Did you have to hand pollinate the corn in the tunnel?
The normally wind blown pollen naturally falls from the tassels at the top of the plant, but shaking the plants a bit in the polytunnel helps.
Did I miss where you mentioned how big the BIG GROW BAGS are? I am tempted to try to grow some sweet corn in some large 25 or 50 gallon grow bags. But not sure. I know I would need to use enough to make sure there is good crop density for pollination. My only other corn growing experiment was in plastic food safe buckets, and there was not enough to ensure good pollination of the silks
Also, Enjoy Canada! Half my wife's family is from NS, before that, Scotland and Ireland. Her other half is all from Sweden.
The biro bags are about 40L or 10 gallons. It seems that the success is more based on being able to supply enough fertility through the whole growing period, rather than limited size of the container.
For my 25 gal. grow bags @@REDGardens, I am used to dealing with fertilizing. I use them for Potato, onion, chives, and beets. so, keeping up with fertilizing thru the season. The plus of air pruning comes with the loss of nutrients as water washes out fairly regularly.
the only way to cook corn ;)
bring large pot of water to boil, turn off and load in the clean corn cobs. half hour later is ready.
i am cornholio ;)
Microwave is surprisingly very good and quick.
Yeah, I have found using the microwave is an easy and fast way to prep sweetcorn for a quick dinner!
How did you keep the birds away outside the polytunnels?
I guess they just didn't come across it before so didn't know it was food.
I lose nearly all the cobs I pull the husk back on to ants, so I rarely check maturity that way. Must be you don't have many ants in your garden spaces. I would guess that my sandy soil encourages them.
I am guessing transplanting the sweetcorn made it take longer to harvest
There might be some difference, but I didn't notice it with the direct seeded and transplanted plants that I grew in the one polytunnel.
✌️😎
You should also consider growing *baby* corn in whichever family of corn varieties grows well in your climate, not just confining yourself to sweetcorn.
I think there must be a trick to baby corn. Do you cut the tassels off to prevent pollination?🤔
You just harvest very early. I can't link on RUclips, but google the WSU guide "PNW532-baby-corn-publication"@@angelad.8944
The "three sisters" idea is really popular, but not well evidenced. These same crops were grown all over the US and Mexico (though not in the pacific northwest where the climate is most like yours in ireland) but only one small part of the iroquois confederacy straddling the US North East and Canada seems to have actively grown them together in the tripartite polyculture. It may be just the specific varieties they grew and their specific climate that made it worthwhile or it may have been a spiritual or quasispiritual belief for which a reduction in yield was worth it but pretty much everyone who has measures yield has found that they get more beans more squash and more corn by growing them separately than by growing them together in what always becomes one giant tangle of foliage with little yield.
I think it's pretty clear also that sweet corn is the wrong corn to make it work. Sweet corn was developed by the european settler population and while I'm sure some corn was eaten prematurely corn was the staple crop for many populations and most of their focus was probably on corn that stored well which is why high protein flint corns dominated. Unimproved "indian" varieties also tend to be much slower to mature and much much larger plants, often with multiple ears. A 3-5 meter tall corn plant can handle beans climbing all over it better than a 1.5 meter sweetcorn plant can.
Very good points, thanks. One of the main reasons for trying the Three sisters is to see if it can be adapted to work with the types of corn, beans and squash that we want to grow around here. And to figure out how and why the combination doesn't work. I think I will try it again for a few years, but I suspect I will come to similar conclusions that it is better and easier to grow them separately.
Most people in the USA that have tried the three sisters don't do it again after the first try. Have better success giving them each their own space. Love all your experiments though.
I figured it would not work out well when I tried it, partially because I have observed the same thing you did. But I wanted to see if/how I could get it to work, or at least understand better how it doesn’t. I find things that fail or don’t work as expected, are often great opportunities to learn.
your climate baffles me, if you compare this to the netherlands its like a 10degrees difference for summer while being on thesame longitude. i know youre an island and far more of a sea-climate but still
Yeah, it is so much cooler out here. Part of it is being in the Atlantic, and the winds are from the Atlantic. But a lot of it is that we don't get those high pressure 'heat domes' that often seem to cover a lot of the rest of Europe.
I have wondered about how you speak where you draw out certain words and drop your tone at the end of the sentence. What is this?
Ah, that is my awkwardness in standing by myself in front of a camera. Something I want to work on!
IMHO -The lowering in tone at the end of a sentence shows that the sentence is a statement that is coming to a conclusion. A rise in tone at the end of a sentence makes the sentence sound like a question, or at least makes the speaker sound unsure of their statement. If one listens to older broadcasts or movies, one will notice that statements are concluded with a lowering in tone and questions are concluded with a rise in tone. I find Red's voice to be most pleasant.
He sounds like the guy who narrates Academy of Ideas. I thought it was just a Canadian accent I had not heard before.
It's as though the emergency medical hologram from startrek TNG became a gardener!
You're really well spoken. Besides your data backed and comparative looks at different gardening methods a big part of what I like about your videos is the way you deliver the words. Like another commenter says you remind me of a newsman or some kind of well spoken, learned gentleman @@REDGardens