[Fleecewife]

I was moaning today to a visitor about the fact that every year my sweetcorn runs out of pollen before the bottom tassels are open.  She said that she stores some pollen from early on, in an envelope, to sprinkle over those last cobs.  Has anyone tried this and if so, does it work?  Seems so simple and obvious  now

[langdon]

never heared of that before, but its a smart idea, thats what i love about gardening you allways learn
new ways of doing things better, hope you get the cobs you hope for

[Fleecewife]

Hi Langdon - I hope so too    It's amazing how many folk suddenly come round for dinner when the corn is ready     I'll report back eventually on whether or not the idea is successful.

[northfifeduckling]

Although I germinated all the seeds at the same time I seem to have 2 lots of different sizes / different growth stages. I hope it works that they are going to pollinate each other...let us know how you get on with the new method!

[Hermit]

If you plant corn in blocks rather than rows there should be no problem with pollination, I just give a shake now and then. 'You walk to pick corn but run back to cook it'.mmmmmmmmm

[Fleecewife]

Yes I plant my sweetcorn in blocks and the pollen is sprinkled liberally.  The problem comes with the second or third cobs down the stem - by the time they need pollen the flowers have often run out, so while we get beautiful well-filled cobs for the first and sometimes second ones, the third ones have so far been a disappointment.
I have two different ages of plants too - sown at the same time but planted out a week or two apart so one lot is behind the other.  The later ones might pollinate the third cobs on the early ones but then the later ones will still have the problem.....
I tried sprinkling collected pollen this morning but as there is still plenty being produced I was really just seeing how to do it and how much I will need to collect for the third cobs.
Sweetcorn is so delicious that it's worth all the faffle to be able to grow it up here on my draughty, windswept hill.

[Hermit]

I only have success with corn in the polytunnel, I have tried outside but no good.

[Fleecewife]

Same here - it doesn't even flower outside.  It does mean though that inside the tunnel the wind for pollinating comes from one direction only, depending on where the closest louvre is, so I need to take care that the upwind ones get pollinated too.  It would be worth having the tunnel even if the only crop we grew was sweetcorn   

[northfifeduckling]

the outdoors ones have just started flowering, so I can use the pollen for the last cobs in the tunnel , so pleased, even if they don't come to anything themselves.

[Andy1982]

Hi,

   Yeah planting these lovelys in a block always helps and this year I have packed them a bit closer together as I don't know that the root system will strangle the others as their shallow but damn thirsty , but I tend to give them a bit of a shake on a calm day just to help a bit of the process along a bit.

Let us know how you get on. Quite like the thought of saving some pollen 

Andy