Sweetcorn suckers / tillers - why I don't remove them
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- Опубликовано: 13 июл 2024
- In this video I talk about suckers or tillers - the side shoots that develop from the base of sweetcorn plants - what they are, and what their appearance signifies. It is fairly common practice to remove them, but here I give some of the reasons why I think it may be better to leave them alone.
Thank you for this report. I just came in from the garden and noticed numerous tillers on my sweet corn. Thinking that these would deplete nutrients I was going to cut them off, but hesitated because of the wounds it would create. You've saved me some work and probably helped improve my yield. Thank you.
That's great :)
Having never successfully grow sweetcorn, fingers are crossed for this year. This was really helpful as didn't even know they did side shoots!
Hope it goes well! Fertile soil, plenty of water, reasonable spacing, and that’s all you can do. Then it’s down to the weather.
I asked about this in a forum but haven't received a reply. I have quite large suckers/tillers and was going to remove but I'm now going to follow your advice. It's my first year growing corn. Coincidentally I've gone with Swift as the variety. I've got 25 plants on the go in my grid and they are doing pretty well. About knee high now in early July.
I watched an interesting video the other day about tomato yields after letting at least one sucker grow so you have two or maybe even three main stems. The results suggested a huge increase in yield over a single stem. This was for cherry vining varieties. Someone pointed out in the comments that it wouldn't work well for larger beefsteak varieties due to the energy requirements of each fruit. I was surprised the yield was so much better for the cherry tomatoes though. I wish I had seen it at the start of the season as I would have given it a try. I will have to try experimenting next year. Of course more than one growing stem can get a bit unwieldy and will need more space but I thought it was pretty interesting to learn. Anyway just thought I'd share as you were talking about continuing methods based on myths. Single stemming tomatoes is not specifically a myth I suppose but still one of those habits that most people carry on doing year on year even if it may not be the method that produces the best yield.
Regarding tomatoes, even though I set out to grow single stems, I often allow more than one stem to grow - it depends how they develop, but if they put on a lot of growth and there just happens to be a suitable extra shoot, I will often just tie it in and let it fruit. It can work fine for larger sorts too if the plant has been grafted and if it's in some good deep soil - the plants grow much taller/longer in commercial production than in a normal greenhouse so they can easily managed an extra shoot or two. It all depends on the vigour of the plant. The more important point is not letting the space get overcrowded - this reduces airflow and encourages disease - so that is really the limiting factor.
Tillers are a sign that your soil has good fertility and that your spacing is good. I get multiple tillers on my corn. Many of my tillers also form ears. It isn't uncommon for me to get 3 or 4 ears from one plant. I've even had a few times where I've gotten 5 or 6 ears. Further, your tillers will lend nutrition to your main stalk when the cobs are forming. Tillers also help stabilize the plant against wind. They also help to shade out the area underneath which will keep weed growth down. My tillers typically form tassels which helps pollination, especially if you have more than one ear per plant, the later forming cobs are able to get pollinated if your main stalk tassels are already used up.
Yes indeed, all of those are good reasons to leave them alone. It is a pity that the myth persists that tillers should be removed!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge
All my side shoots are producing ears of corn some only one ear others two ears. Its very fascinating. I had no clue and this is the first year I am growing corn and I choose to wait and see and I am happy I did.
The plants must be happy with their environment 👍😊
Most say that we should remove them.. but for some reason I felt that it was wrong/mean.. 😅I keep thinking that my plant probably formed that side-shoot for a reason and I should respect that…
At the same time tho, the wild corn probably doesn’t care about how big the cobs are and is happy with many half pollinated ones..? Idk, so maybe for the best harvest I should remove them.. I thought.
But this video reassured me that I don’t really have to do that! And that it can actually do more harm than good, thanks!
Gardening myths are very persistent and research has shown that some of the common practices are not quite right. Interestingly, nothing quite like sweetcorn or field corn exists in the wild - the crop we grow now is very different from its ancestors.
I haven't been removing the ' suckers' from my tomatoes and still seeing great results....
If you have fertile, healthy soil, there is no need to remove suckers. Doing so in that case will result in a lower yield. The plant knows how it's supposed to grow. Especially with determinate varieties, never remove suckers on determinates.
I'm growing sweetcorn for the first time this year, only 9 plants due to shortage of space but I thought it was worth a try. Only the centre plant has a tiller so far which I will leave attached. I enjoyed the video. I'm learning fast from vloggers like yourself who willingly share what they've learned so the rest of us can make progress too. Thank you. Avis :-)
Thank you :) Nine plants should be ok - you might need to help with the pollination a little bit as they do benefit from planting in a larger block but that's not a problem. Hope it goes well!
You covered every question I was pondering. Thank you, very informative. I agree, the tillers are beneficial.
Thank you so much for this video. This was very helpful information. This is my first attempt at growing sweet corn but my second round in the attempt. My second round is more successful than the first and the appearance of some side shoots concerned me. And I love all the extra information so no need to apologize for lecturing.
Thanks 🙂
This was both interesting and helpful. I am growing sweetcorn for the first time and yesterday I noticed side shoots and did not know whether to leave them or not, so I shall leave them after watching this. Thankyou.
So glad it helped. Good luck with your corn! :)
This is just the information I need, will start working through your other video's to learn more.
That's great - thanks :)
Nuff said...I'm leaving them on and not giving it a second thought.
I like it when the 'lazy option' is also the best option 😂
me too.👍
Well since those side shoots are growing almost as there own plant and likely develop there own roots then I doubt they are having ill effects on the main plant and probably add stability in the wind. I've been growing sweet corn all my life and never have broken those off and have usually gotten great corn depending on the conditions that year of course. I've always watered in the evenings I know they say its bad and can cause fungal infection and what not, but I work during the day and I am to lazy to get up earlier in the morning to water before work at 7. I've always believed the thing about not watering during the heat of the day though it just seemed to make sense.
It's small margins with when to water. In the evenings it can leave plants damp over night which might provide suitable conditions for fungal growth. It the heat of the day you might lose a little more to evaporation. Most of us just water when we get the chance and it works out ok 👍
Informative as always thanks.
Great information!
I’m watching this because I got suckers for the very first time. But it is also the first time I’ve planted corn in a raised bed. I noticed the shoots sprouting after the corn was about 12-18 inches and had just been through a hard storm, with high winds. Some of it was laid over but I set it back up and in a couple days. Out came the shoots. But only on the ones that fell over. I noticed a very strong growth and heavy root base on the ones with shoots. I wonder if corn does that to help gain more roots for stability and/or nutrient/water intake?
That’s interesting. I think that is a normal survival mechanism - tillers form on normal healthy plants in response to favourable conditions, but they also form in response to damage to the main stem (in this case, presumably, a fair bit of root damage). The tillers are there to take over from the ailing main stem - if it happens early enough in the season (depending on where you are) they may go on to produce ripe cobs, but hopefully your main plant will recover. I’m sure the strong root development you mention will help anchor the plant after falling over.
I appear to have broken a lot of growing corn rules 🤣
Four seeds planted in a group (4" d), and the groups are 1ft distance in two rows (4groups×2rows), and I didn't remove the tillers.
They're all a beautiful dark green, thick sturdy stems, thigh high, and I've noticed tassels forming.
Your short presentation has given me confidence to experiment more with my garden.
Currently I'm working on collecting Dutch carrot seeds, and am going to see if leaving the seeds in the fruits has any affect on germination rate. My flower heads are currently hanging upside down while they slowly dry.
You may find that one plant per station is ideal for corn - I haven't heard of them being planted in groups like that so no idea how that will work out. Sometimes the rules are good to follow, sometimes not so much, so experimenting to find what works isn't a bad idea 👍😀
@@jonnyskitchengarden I'm using the 3-sisters method, and the bed is built on a base of used pine pellet kitty litter courtesy of my Feline Feudal Overlords.
Plenty of N.
I haven't tried that, although I have sometimes had squash running around beneath the corn so 2 sisters, maybe :)
The four seed group planting method is how I was taught to plant by my dad. The fruits are normal size the the pollination is increased with the swaying of the corn stalk, no matter witch way the swaying occurs.
I planted nine sweetcorn plants in crates (3 plants each in 3 crates in my glasshouse) mixed with compost and manure and some organic fertilizer pellets about seven weeks ago and I can't believe how big they are now( close to five foot). I only did it as an experiment as I never grew them before so I was just curious. Every plant has side shoots most have two, I left them to grow as I was worried that I might introduce some disease to the main stem if I cut it off. Glasshouse is now like a jungle. Great video!
Sounds great - the plants must be happy there 🙂 When they start flowering it might help to give them a hand with pollination: ruclips.net/video/1SF8JQZ5S-g/видео.html
@@jonnyskitchengarden Thanks for that. I'll watch that now.
Hello, I have 3 rows of peaches n cream corn planted anywhere from 8 inches to 12 inches apart. All have at least 1 tiller and about half have 2 tillers. Last year I tried to self pollinate cause I only had 1 row of corn. This was still f
Difficult cause I had a very small yield and the corn was poorly developed and small. Is there a possibility i will have a better yield and better crop since there is 3 rows instead of one.
I would think so. Corn is usually planted in a block rather than a row for exactly this reason - I would expect better pollination this year 👍
Apologies not required.
I still do this, too.
Ever spent time with a long serving kindy teacher 🤣
instead of remove by pulling, can we just cut it off closer to its base
Yes, absolutely - and if they are large that might be the best way 👍
So I shall leave the tillers but remove any silks that form and see if it helps.
That is a good plan, I think. The tillers can be useful if for some reason the main stem gets damaged.
Iwemade my decition to keep them only cause I dont want my corn to tip over, Im not growing to live or die so its better to get some nice ears to put on the grill instead of risking to injure the plant or reducing the root system, besides corn farmers dont cut them off
Good reasons to let them grow as they wish 👍
@@jonnyskitchengarden Hi Its me again😁 I did try trimming on stalk that had some damage. I cut as close to the stalk as possible now the result is that one of the 2 the shoots came back with force growing an incredible 11cm in 3 days. Its 30c so that might have an impact. Anyways just though I wuld share, and Im not taking any more off as I fear it will completley drain the plant trying to grow them back. Sorry for my english
It will be interesting to see whether the shoots are productive; there is likely a large root system there to support their rapid growth after removing the damaged stalk.
Water on leaves do burn our large flat leaf taros in our greenhouse
Interesting. Do they have fine hairs on the leaf? I have read that fine hairs on leaves can hold the moisture droplets above the leaf surface and then they can cause burning 🤔
@@jonnyskitchengarden no but they burn were bugs or mold make the leaves dirty.
OK, that's interesting 👍
@@jonnyskitchengarden yea the whole point of washing is to clean of said dust
Corn
Interesting content.
When I was growing corn for the first time way back, I had seen a video that recommended removing the tillers, so I did that. I had a great harvest. Later I have seen many videos on the subject, both recommendation to remove and not remove the tillers. One year I removed the tillers on half of the plants, but could not see any difference. In the recent years, my sweet corn has grown with tillers without my interaction, and also this year.
It’s definitely one of those subjects that picks up lots of different opinions! I think it depends a lot on the variety and conditions. I’m waiting to see if the open pollinated corn produces as many as the hybrid - some of the hybrids are said to be quite prone to tillering 🤷♂️
Being a 1st year gardener learning thru various resources online, I agree with @jonnyskitchengarden that using whichever methodology works best for you. One isn't right or wrong but one could be a better method based on your growing conditions and environment. The enjoyment and gratification of gardening comes from entertaining your curiosities thru personal experience and harvesting all that knowledge. 🥰