Sweetcorn Seeds

Growing suggestions for sweetcorn seeds

Sow sweetcorn seeds indoors in pots or large modules from April. Sow two seeds in each pot and remove the less vigorous one. Plant out at final spacing after the last frost, mid-May as a rule of thumb. Alternatively direct sow in May in final growing position; place 2-3 seeds in pre-dibbed 3cm deep holes at the required spacing and thin to one plant per station. Early crops benefit from fleece to protect them from cold.

Sweetcorn growing calendar

Crop History

Originally, corn was domesticated from its wild relative teosinte 9,000 years ago in the lowlands of southwestern Mexico. It spread across all over the Americas by about 5,000 years ago and was brought to Europe by explorers in the 16oos. Today corn has become one of the most economically important crops for livestock feed, as human food, as biofuel, and as raw material in industry. Many industrial varieties are genetically modified and most corn seeds are hybrid F1s. Open-pollinated (non-hybrid) sweetcorn may not have as high of production yield as the modern hybrids but growing open-pollinated varieties will preserve genetic diversity and keep regionally adapted varieties alive.