This years crazy seesaw of rain and very hot and warm weather made the corn grow high and on the 4th August the pollen tassel at the top where there before the fruit or ears of corns have even formed on the stalk. I was not not holding my breath for a good result from this new variety from Marshalls Alliance Sweetcorn and stated that I will have to wait and see what happens. Out of nowhere the cobs started to form and I've been keeping an eye on the corn for the tassels to turn brown and for any sign of attack from animals.
I put them all in a trugg and decided to strip as many back as possible. I used my cheap supermarket Secateurs for the first few and the nut started to come undone so I got my new Spear & Jackson Kew Gardens Razorsharp 6659KEW Heavy Duty Bypass Secateurs. What a joy to use they are, and they come with a 10 year Guarantee.
I still have at least half of the stalks to cut up for the Daleks when I next visit. I exposed three nice sized marrows that I had planted in the sweetcorn bed, and found a number of Butternut Squash and a couple of pumpkins when cleaning the paths and cutting the invading vegetation back.
It has to be said this variety of sweetcorn lived up to the description on the Marshalls Web site and the husk stripped very easily, and before I know it I had two mushroom trays of stripped corn ready to be topped and tailed and bagged for the freezer.
As you can see I really didn't need to worry about the pollination and the slowness of the cobs to form. A third of the harvest went with my eldest daughter a third for my youngest and the remaining third is now awaiting cooking in the freezer.
Marshalls Sweetcorn Alliance Seeds
Marshalls Sweetcorn Alliance Plants
They look stunning. Am going to get some of these, thanks.
ReplyDeleteThey sent me another new variety to trial this year but because of the injury to my leg I didn't manage to get the beds ready at the other end of the new plot so I shall be having a go at them next year. I may actually buy Alliance rather than Swift or Lark in future based on the results this year.
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