Growing Sweet Corn in the Backyard Garden

CSU/Denver County Extension Master Gardener 2010
888 E. Iliff Avenue
Denver, CO 80210

Phone: (720) 913-5278
EMail: denvermg@colostate.edu

By Robert Cox, Colorado State University Cooperative Extension horticulture agent

Ask a gardener about the real reason to grow a garden and you'll likely get a two-word answer: Sweet corn.

Though corn requires plenty of space in the vegetable garden, it is hard to beat its taste and tenderness, especially when freshly-picked.

The key to high quality sweet corn is rapid growth, adequate soil moisture and nutrients, and harvesting the ears at optimum maturity.

Sweet corn kernels can be yellow, white, or both of these colors on the same ear (bicolor). The level of sucrose (sugar) in the kernels determines the corn's sweetness. In most cases, however, sucrose is rapidly converted to starch if the corn is not cooked, frozen or refrigerated just after harvest. Starches make the corn less tender and less sweet. In most of the newer "sugar-enhanced" or "super-sweet" varieties, this conversion to starch is slowed so ears remain in optimum condition longer.

Corn is monoecious (mon-ee-shuss) which means that there are both male and female flowers on each corn plant. In some monoecious plants, male and female parts are in the same flower. In corn, male and female flowers are in different locations - the male flowers form a tassel which is at the top of the plant. The female flower is located at the junction of leaves and stem. It consists of a collection of hairs (silks) enclosed in the husks of what will become the ears. These silks are pollen-receiving tubes. Wind-blown pollen from the male flowers (tassel) falls on the silks below. Each silk leads to a kernel, and pollen must land on all silks for the ear to fill out completely with kernels. Kernel "skips" (ears only partly filled out with kernels) often are the result of poor pollination.

Â© CSU/Denver County Extension Master Gardener 2010