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When to harvest sweetcorn


Growing Sweet Corn from Sowing to Harvest

, written by Benedict Vanheems

There’s something pretty special about a handsome stand of homegrown sweet corn. But the real prize lies in harvesting it. Picking the cobs, then excitedly peeling back the sheath to reveal those full, creamy kernels is just magical! And there’s no better treat than cooking them straight away for the sweetest possible taste. If you fancy growing your own sweet corn this year, you’re in good company. Here are some tips to set you up for sweet success...

Growing Super Sweet Corn

Grow sweet corn in a spot that receives plenty of sunshine, in soil that’s been enriched with a lot of well-rotted organic matter such as compost. Corn’s lofty habit and feathery tassels makes it an attractive plant in its own right.

Hybrid varieties are usually the most reliable choices for cooler climates. If you want especially sweet cobs, then choose varieties described as such – many will even have the word ‘sweet’ or ‘sugar’ in the name.

How to Sow Sweet Corn

Corn loves the warmth and won’t tolerate frost. While the seeds may be sown directly outside once the soil has warmed up, the safest way to sow is into pots in the protection of a greenhouse, hoop house or cold frame. That way you can begin sowing three to four weeks before your last frost date and enjoy a head start on outdoor-sown corn – a huge advantage in shorter growing seasons.

Sow eight to ten seeds half an inch (1cm) deep into four inch- (10cm) wide pots. You can use any general purpose or seed-starting potting mix. Alternatively, sow into smaller pots or plug trays, sowing two seeds to each pot or module then removing the weakest of the two seedlings.

Sweet corn hates the cold and is best started off in a greenhouse, hoop house or cold frame

Keep pots moist as they grow on. Ideally they should be about six inches (15cm) tall by the time you’re ready to plant them outside. Harden off the plants as your recommended planting time approaches by leaving them outside for increasingly longer spells over the course of about a week.

How to Plant Sweet Corn

Sweet corn is wind-pollinated, so instead of planting them in a long row, set your plants out in a block for the highest chance of success. If the corn isn’t well pollinated, it will still grow but will be missing many of the kernels from the cob.

Remove your young plants from their pots, then very carefully tease their roots apart. Try to retain as much of the soil around the roots as possible. Now plant your sweet corn 18 inches (45cm) apart in both directions. Dig a hole for each plant, feed the roots to the bottom of the hole then firm the soil back in.

Sweet corn is best grown in blocks rather than rows for the best harvests

Sprawling squashes make a great companion for sweet corn. The squash will carpet the ground and help suppress weeds as the sweet corn grows skywards.

Caring for Sweet Corn

Remove any weeds that pop up within your sweetcorn by hand and continue weeding while you are still able to get between the plants. Sweetcorn is sturdy and shouldn’t need supporting. It will appreciate watering in very dry weather, particularly from late summer as the silks appear and the cobs begin to form.

Sweetcorn is ready to pick when the silks turn dark brown

When to Pick Sweet Corn

The cobs are ready to pick when the tassels at the end turn dark brown, usually around six weeks after first appearing. If you’re unsure whether a cob’s good to go, try the fingernail test. Peel back the top of the protective sheath then sink a fingernail firmly into a kernel. If it exudes a creamy liquid, it’s ready. If it’s not quite there the liquid will still be watery, and if there’s no liquid the cob is already past its best.

To harvest, twist the cob and pull it away. Aim to enjoy your harvested corncobs as soon as you can. Try it boiled or barbecued then served up with lashings of butter and pepper!

Corn is sweetest cooked as soon as possible after harvesting

Do you know there are even some gardeners who swear by getting a pan of water on the boil before harvesting their corn so it can go from plot to pan in mere seconds? If you have tips for growing or enjoying super sweet corn, then please share them in the comments section below.

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How Do You Know When to Harvest Sweet Corn?

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Corn silks shrivel up after they've been pollinated. Photo: Stereogab under the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0

The day will come when you’ll find yourself looking up at corn stalks that are now taller than you and wondering if the time is right to snap those ears off for tonight’s dinner. Well, here are the clues you need to make the big decision. First of all, what do the silks at the top of the cob look like?

Are they brown, dry, and shriveled? Or are they still pale yellow and shiny? After corn silks are fertilized by the tassels at the top of the stalk, they’ll shrivel up as the ears mature. This happens about three weeks after the silks form. The corn kernels become ripe just about the same time as the silks become brown and shriveled.

To be sure you don’t pick an ear before its time, you may want to check the kernels themselves. Make a small cut vertically into one of the ear’s husks. While you do want to get to the kernels, keep the cut small so that you don’t inadvertently make it easy for pests to sneak in.

Now, choose a kernel that’s a few down from the top of the ear because those teeny top ones sometimes never fill out; so you could be fooled. You’re looking for tight, filled-out corn kernels. Use your fingernail to puncture a kernel. The liquid inside is going to tell you a lot about your timing. If the liquid that comes out is very clear and watery, they’re not ripe yet. If you can see through the liquid and yet it looks milky, the corn is perfect for picking. And if the liquid is completely opaque (you can’t see through it), you’ve waited too long.

After a season or two of guessing and testing, you’ll get very good at gauging your corn’s ripeness just by looking at the kernels. Because you have about three days after they become ripe before the sugars in the kernels turn to starch, seasoned gardeners have traditionally practiced cooking corn as close to harvesting as possible. but some of the newer supersweet varieties have made that less of a worry.

Previous: When Is Corn Ready to Be Picked? Next: How to Grow Potatoes

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When can you harvest corn and how to determine the ripeness

Corn is native to the tropics, but over the past hundred years it has spread so much that it is grown almost everywhere. Perfectly matures in the middle lane. Many grow it in their dachas for their own consumption or for livestock feed. But the time when it is necessary to harvest corn depends not only on its variety, but also on the purposes for which it is grown. Different levels of crop maturity are needed when harvesting for boil and for popcorn, for grain and for silage, combine and by hand. So, when can you harvest?

Content

Types of rollerity of corn

at dachas and household plots, this culture is most often grown by those who loves to eat tender grains with salt boiled right on the cob at the end of summer. For this purpose, the crop is harvested at the stage of milky ripeness. It is at this time that the grain contains the most sugars, the delicate sweet taste is especially loved by children, who often eat grains, biting them from a raw cob. Milky ripeness is characterized by a delicate, very light, almost white grain color. Covering leaves tightly fit the cob, they are difficult to remove, and the hairs are silky and moist, they are only brown at the very base, then a little beige, and just white at the exit from the cob. If you press on the grain with your fingernail, you can splash juice - it is so juicy under a thin skin. Such corn is not harvested by a combine harvester.

At the stage of waxy ripeness, the inside of the grains is no longer liquid, but not solid, it can be compared in texture to soft cheese, which becomes more and more hard as it ripens. Sugars turn into starch, the tender milk of the juice becomes just pulp, when pressed on the grain, a dent remains.

Biological maturity comes a little later. The grains have acquired a rich color - yellow or orange, corresponding to the variety. The covering leaves dried up and became like thin parchment. The hairs dried up, became intensely brown. A harvest of such ripeness can already be harvested with a combine.

Harvest dates

Grain corn is harvested at different times depending on the variety, growing location and sowing time. In agricultural production, this is done with the help of special combines, when the dry matter is already at least 60% - this is on the cob, and in the grain itself after threshing it should be more than 70%. This level of ripeness is checked by evaluating the black layer that appears where the grain is attached to the stem. You should not hurry with the collection, but if the autumn rains begin, they will reduce the quality of the crop. And the first frosts will completely spoil it - the grain will simply freeze.

Corn for silage is harvested when there is still a lot of sugar in the grains, when they are wet - at the end of the period of milky-wax ripeness. This is the period of the best chemical, physical and qualitative composition. Silage cooked after harvesting milky-wax ripeness is the most nutritious.

But here it is important to determine the right time - it is best to harvest at the stage of wax ripeness. At the beginning of the period of milky-wax ripeness, the grains contain too much liquid, the loss of 5% of the dry mass is fraught with rapid oxidation, which is not desirable for silage. And when the corn has already reached wax ripeness, the grains are still wet (up to 70%), but the sugar has not yet turned into starch. Silage made from too early harvest will not be of high quality, because the necessary nutrient compounds will not be in it. This is very important, because the quantity that needs to be prepared for animals depends on the quality of food.

If you harvest corn at the stage of wax ripeness of grains with a combine harvester at the right time, then the silage will give the animals 20% more energy, that is, you can prepare as much less concentrated feed.

In dachas and household plots for eating or preserving tender grains, the crop is harvested when the grains have reached milky ripeness, because at this time they are the sweetest and most tender. Neither harvesters nor any devices are used here except for the gentle hands of the owner. It is impossible to determine the exact timing of collection, you can only check the degree of maturity from time to time just by hand.

It is necessary to check by touch whether the grains are swollen along the entire length of the cob. In a ripe cob, the end becomes elastic and rounded, in an unripe one it is sharp. The silky hair of the mature cobs is dry and brown. They say that it is at the peak of maturity that the grains have the highest concentration of sugars and all useful substances.

If you don't understand anything by touch, you can slightly bend the covering leaves and look at the grains. They should no longer be white, but the delicate cream color should not gain its bright intensity. You can pierce a grain with your fingernail and look at the juice - if it is completely transparent, then collect it early, if it has turned into ordinary pulp - the moment of the best taste has already been missed.

If it is too early to harvest, then after examining the cob, the covering leaves must be returned to their place, otherwise the birds will eat your crop.

Cobs never pick all at once. It is known that the top ones sing first, they lean from the stem. As soon as the top ear becomes almost perpendicular to the stem, it's time to check its ripeness. It is advisable to pay attention to the lunar calendar of 2023 for country work.

Corn is harvested from household plots to feed livestock when it reaches biological maturity, otherwise it will be difficult to store it in winter. Grains are stored on the cob if there is enough space.

How to harvest

Silage corn at a height of 20 cm is cut with a special harvester, a PNP-2.4 device is attached to it, and another one is attached to it, which collects swaths and grinds the plants. Agricultural enterprises always use machinery for harvesting. Combines with special corn headers harvest corn for grain. If only combines are used, then the quality of harvesting will be worse, and the loss of product will be greater. Plants are cut at a height of 15 cm above the ground.

In your country house, you are your own harvester and harvester. After waiting for the moment of milky ripeness of the upper cobs, they need to be removed with your hands - they simply take the stem with one hand, and unscrew the cob from it with the other. Each plant usually has more than two (especially on hybrids) ears, and so, the lower ones can ripen 10 days later than the upper one. It is worth keeping at hand the lunar calendar of sowing works for the fall of 2023 and consulting with it.

Dairy corn is not stored for a long time, it must be eaten immediately or kept a little (up to 1 week) in the refrigerator. It will lose sweetness all the time, but the cold will delay the transformation of sugar into starch a little.

The popcorn is removed in the same way. It will be even easier to break off the cob from the stem - since this happens much later, the stems and leaves should dry out. After that, the grains are dried and dried for more than a month. Do this in a warm room with adequate ventilation. After the drying stage, the cobs are stored in a cellar or similar room, and the grains are simply in a tightly closed jar on a kitchen cabinet shelf.

Seed corn is harvested one month after harvesting the tender and sweet for eating. By this time, the leaves were completely dry, the trunk darkened. Cobs are torn off the stem with hands, slightly turning in different directions. Then the grains are dried, removing the integumentary leaves. Well dried, they easily fall off the cob if you take it with both hands and rub it in opposite directions. Store them in a hermetically sealed container, the place for it should be dark, dry and cool. After proper collection and drying, they will not lose their germination for up to 10 years.

US Corn Harvest Video

This video shows Iowa farmers harvesting huge corn crops.

When corn ripens: ripening and harvesting dates

Mature corn is a favorite treat for children and adults. At the end of summer, fragrant boiled ears decorate dining tables, and gardeners casually brag to each other about the size of the crop. But not everyone has many years of experience in growing corn, and not everyone can immediately determine the ripeness of corn. In this article, we will look at how to know when to harvest corn and how to do it correctly.

Content

Signs of ripening

Ripening periods are overwhelmed from variety to variety, therefore it is important to know how to determine the maturity of the maturity this culture without a calendar. Check the top ears first, as they ripen the earliest. Therefore, if you want to try it, feel free to break off the top and cook. Usually, it is the top cobs that deviate to the side, showing the degree of ripeness, until they fall perpendicular to the stem.

The next step is to test the cob. The grains should become swollen over the entire area of ​​​​the cob, and the threads with which it is studded should dry out. It is by the color of these threads that ripeness can be determined. When they turn brown, dry and separate easily, the crop is ready to be harvested. Examine the top of the cob. It should be round and blunt, which means that the grains have ripened.

If the previous steps did not give you an idea of ​​the maturity of the corn, carefully move the leaves and inspect the grains - the cob should be completely covered with them. Press a few grains with your fingernail, if the liquid that comes out is white, you can pluck the corn. If the liquid is clear, the corn has not yet ripened, and if it is very thick, then it is overripe.

And the color of the grains can tell a lot. When corn enters the milky stage, they are light yellow, the closer the corn to the full ripeness stage, the darker and richer their color becomes.

If you are growing popcorn, which is used to make popcorn, wait until the stalk turns brown first. For the bursting variety, the harvest period shifts as the cobs are harvested at peak maturity. That is, the later the better. Therefore, you should wait until the stem, the cob, and the leaves acquire a brown color.

Maturation period

The crop ripening period varies depending on the variety and region of Russia where it is grown. For example, in the Moscow region, early-ripening varieties are most often grown, the harvest of which can be harvested as early as late July and early August. Among the varieties that are sown in fields in the Moscow region, the best are: Dobrynya, Lakomka 121, Early Golden 401, Spirit F1. They are distinguished by high yield, resistance to many diseases and ripen among the first among all varieties.

On average, it takes 65 to 150 days from germination to full maturity. The flowering period begins approximately at 60-65 days, but this depends on the variety, as well as the stage of milky ripeness occurs at 75-85 days. The term varies not only depending on the variety, but also on the region of Russia in which corn grows, as well as on the quality of care for it.

How to harvest

So, when you realize that the corn is ripe (in the Moscow region this period falls on the end of August and lasts almost until the end of September), it's time to collect it. No special preparation is needed for this procedure, so harvesting will be easy and hassle-free.

Picking is best done early in the morning. Put on gloves first so you don't hurt your hands. Squeeze the cob in the palm of your hand, hold the stem with the other palm, pull the cob down and turn.

It should be noted that most sweet varieties lose their taste within a day after harvest. This means that the crop must be immediately sent for processing or eaten. However, there are tricks to keeping the beans sweet.

Place the cobs in a cool place, such as the vegetable compartment in the refrigerator. In this way, you will slow down the conversion of sugar to starch and keep the corn tasty for a week.

Considering that most varieties, especially hybrid ones, produce 2-4 ears per plant, pick them off gradually, keeping a harvest interval of at least 10 days.

When picking popcorn (in the Moscow region this period begins in mid-September), try to be in time before the onset of frost. Again, arm yourself with gloves and start breaking off the cobs. When the stems and leaves dry out, this procedure will not take you much time and effort.

Subsequently, popcorn is dried for at least 4 weeks, and it is better to stand 6-7 weeks to leave only a small amount of moisture in the kernels. They dry it by putting it in mesh bags, which are then hung in a warm room with good ventilation. At the end of the drying stage, the grains are separated from the cobs by scrolling it between the palms.

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