SWEET CORN

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 280, 26 November 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

SWEET CORN

SWEET, or sugar corn, is one of the most delicately-flavoured vegetables, and, in America, one of the most largely used. As a nutritive vegetable food corn has few equals and no superiors, as it is one of the few fresh vegetables containing any considerable amount of fat.

Its total content of carbohydrates (elements which the body can transform into fat) is second only to that of potatoes. Pound for pound, it contains a third more food value than milk, so its rise on the table is as much an evidence of wisdom as of good taste.

Sweet corn is gradually becoming more popular, but many householders find difficulty in obtaining cobs, and those purchased in the shops have either been picked too late or kept too long, and are tough or without flavour. As sweet corn can be easily grown, several rows should be planted each year in the garden.

The secret of growing sweet corn is

to give it deep, rich soil, plenty of manure, frequent cultivation and abundance of water. The ground must be thoroughly trenched and manure must be properly incorporated. A dressing of lime some weeks previously is valuable. A good method of sowing the seed is to make a V-shaped trench about five or six inches in depth, place one inch of superphosphate in the bottom of the trench, cover with two inches of earth, plant the seed, cover with another two inches of earth and roll or tread to firm the soil.

As plenty of room ia necessary for its development, do not plant sweet corn too close. Sow the eeed in rows 36 inches apart, and thin out the plants from 12 to 15 inches apart in the rows. The first sowing in the open ground may be made about the third week in October, bet November and December

are the best months. To have a succession of cobs, make two sowings during each of these months, while a late sowing may be made about the end of the first week in January.

For an early crop of sweet corn, sow the seed in September in boxes kept in a warm situation in the house. As the weather warms up, harden the plants off so that they are ready for setting out in their permanent positions a« soon as the seed can be sown in the open ground, effecting a saving of four or five in picking the first crop of cobs.

Do not attempt to disturb the plants when putting out in the garden. Just cut away the bottom of the box and sink the framework with the plant intact in the ground. To prevent misses, sow three to each box, and when the plants are fairly well up, select the strongest and throw away the remainder. Place the boxes out in rows 36 inches apart, and allow from 12 to 15 inches between the plants. Sow sweet corn about one inch deep for early sowing but later in the season, from the middle of October onwards, plant about 1J inches below the surface.