Sweet Corn — Vegetables

Zea mays

Full sun, regular watering — frost tender — shelter over winter.

Photograph of Sweet Corn — iNaturalist / GBIF

Sow: Apr–May
Plant out: Jun
Harvest: Aug
In flower: Jul, Aug

Sun: Full sun
Water: High
Difficulty: Demanding
Hardiness: H2
Season: summer
Height: 150–250 cm
Spacing: 100 cm
Pets: Safe around pets

Grows well with

Parsley — Parsley is listed as a good neighbour for sweet corn; grown at the foot of the corn it flowers into the summer and feeds predatory wasps.Beetroot — Sweet corn are listed as a poor neighbour for beetroot, so keep them out of the same row.Butternut Squash — Butternut squash can take the squash place in a three sisters bed, sprawling between the sweetcorn and covering the bare soil.French Bean — Sow climbing French beans at the foot of your sweetcorn once it is about 30cm tall: the corn stems take the place of canes, and the beans put nitrogen back into the soil.Potato — Sweet corn are named as a good neighbour for potatoes. The thinking is that mixed planting lets different crops help each other, partly because their scent puts feeding pests off.Pumpkin — Let the pumpkin sprawl between the sweetcorn plants: its big leaves shade the soil, hold the moisture in and smother weeds in the gaps the corn cannot fill.Runner Bean — Do not use runner beans to climb your sweetcorn - they grow too strongly and swamp the corn. Climbing French beans are the ones for this job.Spinach — Spinach fits neatly between rows of sweet corn. Sow it early under fleece and you can clear the crop by mid-May, well before the corn needs the room.

Growing notes

Grows to 1.5-2.5 metres. Space about 50-100cm apart. In flower Jul-Aug.