Sunlight and warmth are essential for growing sweetcorn successfully in the vegetable garden.
Start the sweetcorn seeds off in the greenhouse, or on the windowsill, and transfer them into the garden when the weather is set to be very warm and all chances of frost have gone. This is usually early June. The sweetcorn plants will then romp away. Sweetcorn must keep growing, without any interruptions.

Soil for sweetcorn should be light and well drained. Unless the vegetable garden is very light, it is best to dig a trench about two feet deep. There must be no compaction at the bottom of the trench. Fill the trench almost to the top with compost. Add some vermiculite to lighten the soil and help with drainage. Dig in a little farm yard manure. Cover with a layer of sand, and mix this in to lighten the soil. This trench will provide a light, free draining medium for the sweetcorn roots.
Nutrition for the sweetcorn will come from the prepared trench. Sweetcorn uses masses of potash, which it will get from the compost. The corn needs a little nitrogen which will come from the farm yard manure around the roots. The small amount of phosphate necessary will be in the compost.

Plant sweetcorn in blocks, not rows, as they are pollinated by wind not insects so if they are in rows, the chances are the wind will blow the pollen away. If you plant them in blocks there’s a much better chance of pollination occurring

Watering Sweet corn is vital to produce full, healthy ears. Once the tassels appear, the sweetcorn needs at least one inch of water per week. It is important that the soil does not dry out between watering, so in a dry period the corn needs more frequent watering.
Sweetcorn varieties grown in the vegetable garden are of the flint type - shaped like a tooth. It is important to choose an early variety if it is growing in the UK, where the summers are short. There are some new varieties available which are very early.

Sweetcorn can be grown successfully in the vegetable garden, remembering that it is a sub-tropical plant which needs warmth and light. Sweetcorn uses masses of potash so needs lots of compost, & it needs free draining soil. Growing the sweetcorn in a well prepared trench is ideal for the vegetable garden.

Read this article on why sweetcorn grown in the vegetable garden is sometimes small & shrivelled .

growing sweetcorn in containers