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  • Amateur Gardening

    Focus on… Growing sweetcorn

    May 11, 2021 5 minutes

    ONCE you have tried fresh, homegrown sweetcorn, nothing shop-bought will ever compare again – but isn’t it tricky to grow? Not with the right treatment! Let’s look at how to make the most of this must-grow crop…

    Super grass

    Sweetcorn is actually a massive, lofty grass. It has a reputation for being fickle because of the way it photosynthesises. Giving you a quick biology lesson, most plants use the C3 pathway for this energy-giving process, but sweetcorn, having evolved in arid regions, uses C4.

    “Sweetcorn is a grass and is wind-pollinated”

    C4 is excellent in hot, dry summers but can struggle in cool, damp ones. So a bad summer can result in poor corn. But don’t despair! There are lots of ways to combat this – like starting your plants off early, choosing the right variety for your

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