Your comments and tips

25 Feb 13, Justine (Australia - temperate climate)

Would someone please advise if I should cut the top out of my corn? It is over 6 feet tall and I am worried the growth is going in height and not into the cobs? I live in Tassie and have had a hot summer for us this year. I have mulched in sugar cane and the corn has thrived from this...

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18 Apr 13, Richard (Australia - temperate climate)

Don't cut the tops off. That's the male part of the plant and drops pollen usually before the female silks on the same plant are ready. Most of the growth in corn occurs before the male part springs out and cutting it off doesn't help.

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02 Feb 13, Tink (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

My husband has grown corn for the first time this year. He planted seedlings from a giant hardware chain. I don't know the variety. The stalks are short but the corn cobs are full and beautiful and not too dry or flowery - perfect except they're not very 'sweet'. Are we being impatient & it needs more time? Or is this a lack of heat, nutrient or something else? Thanks!

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24 Jan 13, ben black (Australia - tropical climate)

i have recently planted my crop of sweet corn here in bundaberg it was planted about 6 weeks ago and already stand about 7 to 8 feat tall and have 3 to 4 cobs per plant i dont know why but they do would like to know why

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17 Aug 13, Ferran (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

my sweet corn last year had a mixture of 1-3 cobs per plant. its normal having more than 1 cob per plant but i found that they did not produce as much as one cob per plant and snaped of the smaller ones so as to get a better havest. I found that it had to do with how close they were together. my veriety worked best with 16 stalks per meatre square. bit late and i hope your havest went well. As for the reason, just like when you grow pumpcin you can have several friuts on a vine or one the plant puts its energy equally in to however many friuts there are. when there is only one it gets much bigger than when there are multipual pumpcins however you get more pumpcins if you let them grow multipual ones per vine. some verietys just natraly have more or less friuts per vine and you as the gardener get to chose how many the plant grows or how big they can get.

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15 Jan 13, Patrick (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

What should be done with laterals on the main stalk? Will I leave them on to allow additional corn to grow on them or does leaving them on the main stalk deprive the main stalk from food?

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06 Jan 13, (Australia - temperate climate)

How do tell corn is ready to pick

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10 Jan 13, Chris (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

It's usually ready when the tassles/threads are drying up or black/brown. You can peel back the leaves around the top of the cob before picking to check if it is ripe and fold them back to keep growing if it isn't ready.

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05 Jan 13, Hilda (Australia - arid climate)

how many cobs of corn can you expect to harvest from each plant

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10 Jan 13, Chris (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

It depends on the variety. Most seem to produce two or three, but I've seen some varieties with four or five.

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