The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: sellickbhoy on August 21, 2009, 12:21:15 pm

Title: sweetcorn - how do you know when it's ready?
Post by: sellickbhoy on August 21, 2009, 12:21:15 pm

i've about 5 or 6 cobs on my sweetcorn plants.

i'm having a BBQ tomorrow and want to try fresh sweetcorn straight off the plant, onto the bbq and into my tummy!! but how do i know if my sweetcorn is ready?

Title: Re: sweetcorn - how do you know when it's ready?
Post by: rustyme on August 21, 2009, 03:02:10 pm

your corn should be ready about 3-4 days after the silk at the top goes brown ......if you peel back back the husk and pop a kernal with your finger nail , if it is thick and milky ...you have waited too long .....the corn should be plump and when popped the milky stuff should be sort of see through/cloudy ...a few days over won't make too much difference , it just may not be as sweet as it could be, if left too long.   Hope that makes sense ??

cheers

Russ

Title: Re: sweetcorn - how do you know when it's ready?
Post by: little blue on August 21, 2009, 03:06:17 pm

 The tassels at the end should be turning brown when it starts to ripen.
If you gently peel back the husks, and look at the corn - it should be nice and yellow and quite big. If you dig your nail into a corn, the liquid should be slightly milky.

Enjoy!

(I'm a very slow typist - Russ beat me to it!!)

Title: Re: sweetcorn - how do you know when it's ready?
Post by: sellickbhoy on August 21, 2009, 03:13:27 pm

well, the silks coming out the end were brown (a bit beyond that actually)

anyway, pulled one off and unwrapped it - took a wee while

half of it looked like sweetcorn, but the half towards the tip was under developed.

overall - wouldn't say it was an edible specimen!! there are several more though where th esilks are still white, so i'll keep an eye on them and hopefully they'll come good.

thanks

Title: Re: sweetcorn - how do you know when it's ready?
Post by: aparker155 on August 21, 2009, 04:17:28 pm

I had my first successful corncob this year - it was quite white (as opposed to yellow) but it tasted nice anyway!!  :D

Title: Re: sweetcorn - how do you know when it's ready?
Post by: Fluffywelshsheep on August 24, 2009, 04:26:09 pm

1st time in this house for sweetcorn here not great high but the male parts have formed can't see any femail cobs yet but i was a bit late putting them in and they do have to compete with the squash underneath them