Sowing sweetcorn and checking in on other seedlings - Gardening with Brendan

The past fortnight of glorious April sunshine in Ireland has turbo-boosted the young plants and it’s now a bit of a race against time to get everything potted on or planted out before they run out of nutrients in their seed trays.

You’d never expect to be worrying about seedlings drying out and withering under cloudless skies during an Irish spring, but that has been the case for plantsmen up and down the country so far this month and I doubt anyone is complaining.

Of course, as the old adage goes, nothing lasts and the colder weather is due to return this week, but while the sun shines, it’s been all systems go and April is an ideal time for one of the last vegetable sowing jobs of the spring, and a new one on me, sweetcorn.

Sweetcorn, as it turns out, is not really like many other plants in terms of how it grows, how it pollinates and how you harvest it.

Corn, while grown across the world today, is native to central America and has been grown by the native Americans alongside other vegetables for thousands of years across what is today Mexico and the USA. It was the descendants of those native Americans who, during An Gorta Mór in Ireland, sent corn and meal to help feed those facing starvation and malnutrition. Some of that food aid was stored off the main road between Malin Town and Carndonagh.

The corn I’m sowing is a variety called Golden Bantam from a packet of organic kernels I picked up at the Organic Centre in Rossinver, County Leitrim last autumn.

Although it should grow to be a huge plant, corn can be grown in relatively small containers for its first stages of life and you can sow a number of kernels in a single small pot or sow them in cell trays to get them started. Sweetcorn should germinate within 3 to 10 days. I’m on Day 5 and there’s no sign as yet but hopefully they’ll pop up soon.

It’s important to note that sweetcorn will easily be killed off by a late spring frost, and mine will be joining the tomatoes indoors for another month or so before hardening off and preparing to plant outside.

Corn produces male flowers which look like tassels at the top of the plant and female flowers lower down, which become the ‘ears’ of corn. They are also wind-pollinated and expert growers say the best chance of success with corn is planting at least 16 or 25 plants spaced 40 cms / 18 inches apart in a square grid pattern of 4 x 4 or 5x 5 rows so that the pollen from the plants can reach the female flowers.

And if you do manage to get any ears of corn and they ripen ok, they are apparently best cooked straight after being twisted off the plant to retain their sweetness.

With regards to the other vegetables I’m growing, the tomato seedlings are growing fast. Some of the very old seeds I sowed have germinated just fine including the sprouts. I also have sprouting potatoes now and a lot of young rocket, cress and salad plants, along with green and purple broccoli varieties and the first of the carrots seems to be poking through the soil in the raised bed.

Hopefully now the good weather will return soon to ensure a decent crop this summer.