Front-Yard Farmer
Homegrown Sweet Corn is a Garden Favorite
Posted by: FrontYardFarmer, 5:45 PM GMT on March 12, 2013 +0
To me, summer without sweet corn growing in the garden is like the Fourth of July without flags and fireworks. Even if I grow an abundance of other warm season crops, my home garden just isn’t complete without this sugary summertime treat.

In north Florida, sweet corn is typically planted in about mid-March through late April. In central Florida, it is planted a month sooner. In south Florida, sweet corn is cultivated August-March.

Sweet corn does best when the soil has warmed up and all danger of frost has passed. So here in Niceville, which is located in northwest Florida, I like to plant sweet corn beginning in early April. Two or three weeks later I make one more sowing to extend the harvest.

The varieties of sweet corn recommended for Florida are Silver Queen, Gold Cup, Guardian, Bonanza, Florida Staysweet, How Sweet It Is and Supersweet. How Sweet It Is and Supersweet are two of the newer super-sweet varieties. The super-sweet hybrids (sh2) are true to their name – their juicy, sweeter-than-sugar kernels are a leap above even the popular high-sugar hybrids (su) such as Silver Queen.

The super-sweet corn I grow in my garden is called “Gotta Have It.” It is also known as “That’s Delicious.” No matter what you call it, this sweet corn is rich and full tasting, as well as being the sweetest corn I have ever eaten.

At five to six feet tall, the plants are shorter than most but they produce full size, eight inch ears filled with juicy yellow and white kernels.

And the outstanding flavor remains at its peak for days on end because this sweet corn is extra slow in turning to starch. If you like to put corn away in the freezer, there is no better choice than Gotta Have It. It really holds its sweetness and flavor (we enjoyed it all winter long).

To grow most varieties of sweet corn, I plant seeds about 1 ½ inches deep, spacing them about every four to six inches, in rows which are 30 to 36 inches apart. The final spacing between plants is generally 12 to 18 inches, though some varieties can be less.

Another method is to plant seeds in pairs at the final spacing distance, snipping off the weaker seedling with a pair of scissors.

Corn should be planted in blocks of at least 4 rows. This helps with pollination.

Your corn’s biggest enemy is corn worms. For spring planted corn, one application of Sevin when silks appear, and another a week to 10 days later usually does the trick.

Fertilize with 10-10-10 every three weeks. To help them better stand up to wind, I hill a bit of dirt around the stalks as they grow beginning when they are about 12 inches tall. Do not remove any suckers (this can lead to disease).

Most varieties of sweet corn mature in about 70 to 90 days. Harvest your sweet corn when the silks are brown and dry, and the kernels are milky when squeezed (some super-sweet varieties are more clear than milky even when ripe). Most sweet corn is mature 2 to 3 weeks after silks first appear.

Harvest the ears by twisting them down and away from the stalk.

Read more on growing sweet corn and other homegrown veggies on my Front-yard Farmer pages at Niceville.com, the homepage of Niceville, Florida.

Eat what you grow!

www.Niceville.com

www.NicevilleFlorida.com
Categories:Vegetable Gardening in Florida Gardening Vegetables Vegetable Gardening
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TIME IS SHORT FOR PLANTING SPRING VEGETABLES IN NORTH FLORIDA
Posted by: FrontYardFarmer, 4:56 PM GMT on April 24, 2010 +0
For vegetable gardeners in North Florida, spring planting time is much like Christmastime is for children: eagerly anticipated all year long and once here, it’s over way too soon.As April draws to a close, so does the window for planting most warm season vegetables in North Florida. I sowed the last of my spring veggies, a couple of rows of bush beans, earlier in the week. If you have not put out your spring vegetables yet, you should make it a point to do so ver...
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HOW TO FERTILIZE TOMATOES FOR A BIGGER YIELD
Posted by: FrontYardFarmer, 1:29 AM GMT on April 07, 2010 +0
Many thanks to those of you alerting us to the whereabouts of Amelia tomato plants. By all accounts, it now seems as if Amelia tomato transplants are as easy to find in North Florida as piney woods and dirt roads. If you are new to my blog, the reason we are on the lookout for Amelia tomatoes is because they are resistant to Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. In the recent past, Amelia tomato plants were difficult to find. Now they are available at garden centers from Pensa...
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HOW TO GROW SWEET POTATOES IN NORTH FLORIDA
Posted by: FrontYardFarmer, 11:37 PM GMT on March 29, 2010 +0
A warm, honey-sweet aroma fills the house when homegrown sweet potatoes are baking in the oven. Only their unbelievable taste surpasses the deliciousness of the rich, homey fragrance. Like so many other vegetables, sweet potatoes from a home garden explode with flavor. Oh, what great sweet potato pies they make for Thanksgiving! Beauregard sweet potatoes harvested from my front-yard garden in Niceville in 2007.And get this: Sweet potato plants love poor, sandy soil....
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HOW TO GROW BUSH BEANS AND POLE BEANS IN NORTH FLORIDA
Posted by: FrontYardFarmer, 9:35 PM GMT on March 21, 2010 +0
How can you tell an old-time Southern vegetable gardener from one raised outside the South? One sure fire way is take a peek in the vegetable patch and see what kind of green beans, or snap beans, are growing there. If bush beans are being cultivated -- and not pole beans -- it is probably the vegetable plot of a transplanted gardener, not a true Southerner. Flavor Sweet green beans growing in my Niceville garden in 2009Loads of gardening old timers I know prefer po...
Updated: 1:14 AM GMT on March 22, 2010   Permalink | A A A
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About FrontYardFarmer
Dennis Gilson, the Front-Yard Farmer, shares information, local insight and advice about growing vegetables, berries and fruit trees in North Florida

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