You cannot beat nature.

[Murray]

A few months ago I grew a dozen sweet corn plants from seed and planted them out. When they were about a couple of feet tall I planted some more, the plan being that we would have some more lovely fresh sweet corn after the first lot were finished.
That didn't work.
The second lot just grew quicker and caught up, it's all growing corn cobs at once.

[Murray]

It made me think, you cannot beat nature.
I've seen fanciers using darkness and lights to hold their youngsters in the moult, and light to make them pair up in the middle of winter and all sorts of cunning tricks.
What happens when you take them off the dark? They have to rush through the moult, because nature says they need to. That must be tougher on a young pigeon that has raced the program and now has to do a complete moult in a hurry, than one that was allowed to steadily go through it.
For me, I'll just let them change their flights one at a time and go through the body moult when the days start shortening. It's not like I'm racing for millions or anything.

Oh, and I've planted out some more sweetcorn, it's about 18 inches high, and got seeds in that are just coming up

[Buster121]

All going well Murray, not been able to grow anything here for last couple years

[NeilA]

A few months ago I grew a dozen sweet corn plants from seed and planted them out. When they were about a couple of feet tall I planted some more, the plan being that we would have some more lovely fresh sweet corn after the first lot were finished.
That didn't work.
The second lot just grew quicker and caught up, it's all growing corn cobs at once.

Well done
I didn’t get much joy with mine never achieved the size required probably a little under half the size you see in the shops still decent to eat , they were grown outside so maybe not the right weather at the time or soil issue
At times I think it’s best to grow what you know works and gets a good crop
I do really well in that same small plot with courgettes , lettuce , onions strawberries then cabbage and spinach works great there as for marrows there endless

[Andy]

We used to grow Maize, sweetcorn, for silage for the cows. It would be sown in May and the rule was “knee high by the 4th of July” after that you could almost see it growing. It would grow between 6 inches to a foot a week up to a height of about 8 feet on a good year. Harvested in October when the cobs were still a little milky.

[NeilA]

We used to grow Maize, sweetcorn, for silage for the cows. It would be sown in May and the rule was “knee high by the 4th of July” after that you could almost see it growing. It would grow between 6 inches to a foot a week up to a height of about 8 feet on a good year. Harvested in October when the cobs were still a little milky.

Would that not be field maize just for animals Andy ?
I think sweetcorn is a variety of it developed for human taste
I can remember years ago in Portugal they grew fields of it for animal feed and they were surprised when I said why don’t you eat it as I was thinking it was sweetcorn variety not knowing the difference , when I tried it for myself it was very different to our fresh sweetcorn variety it was tasteless and hard to chew although I’m not sure what Americans use in Grits as that isn’t sweet I am told but never had it

[Andy]

We used to grow Maize, sweetcorn, for silage for the cows. It would be sown in May and the rule was “knee high by the 4th of July” after that you could almost see it growing. It would grow between 6 inches to a foot a week up to a height of about 8 feet on a good year. Harvested in October when the cobs were still a little milky.

Would that not be field maize just for animals Andy ?
I think sweetcorn is a variety of it developed for human taste
I can remember years ago in Portugal they grew fields of it for animal feed and they were surprised when I said why don’t you eat it as I was thinking it was sweetcorn variety not knowing the difference , when I tried it for myself it was very different to our fresh sweetcorn variety it was tasteless and hard to chew although I’m not sure what Americans use in Grits as that isn’t sweet I am told but never had it

Yes it would be a different variety. There are lots of different varieties for different things. It also depends on when it’s harvested. You could eat the field maize but would have to be picked earlier than when we harvested it. The maize used for pigeon corn would be harvested later when the cobs are drying out. The plant itself would be as good as dead by then. I was just pointing out how quickly Maize can grow.

[NeilA]

That’s it I was thinking you wouldn’t be growing sweetcorn variety like Murray is if for the cows
My in-laws grew animal feed maize and it grew a lot higher than the sweet variety from my memory although maybe as it was harvested quicker to keep the sweet taste in the variety