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Grains & specialty crops
Sweet Corn
Wind-pollinated, which means how you plant it matters as much as how you grow it.
Get your planting dates
This guide covers how to grow, harvest and keep sweet corn, deliberately without sowing dates,
because the right date depends entirely on your climate zone. GardenBuddy's planting calendar
covers all seven Australian climate zones and will tell you exactly when to sow where you live.
Growing
Full sun, rich soil, heavy feeder. Plant in blocks of at least four rows rather than a single long row, corn is wind-pollinated and a single row pollinates poorly, giving patchy cobs.
Common problems
- Poorly filled cobs from planting in a single row rather than a block
- Corn earworm in the developing cob tip
- Lodging (falling over) in wind, hill soil around the base for extra stability
Harvest
Ready when silks turn brown and dry and a pierced kernel releases milky (not clear or thick) liquid. Corn sugar converts to starch fast after picking, cook it the same day for best flavour.
Preserving this crop
Best suited to:
Seed saving
Difficulty: Moderate. Crosses readily with any other corn variety flowering nearby, including field corn, isolate by distance or timing. Let cobs dry fully on the stalk before shelling for seed.