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How to grow sweetcorn and best varieties
Growing sweetcorn in your garden or allotment is easy to do in the UK. Discover our trialled-and-tasted sweetcorn varieties and tips for how to grow them
Ceri studied horticulture at the University of Reading and RHS Wisley. She edits Which? Gardening magazine and our online gardening content.
The sheer joy of biting into intensely flavoured, creamy, home-grown sweetcorn makes it an essential summer crop for many veg gardeners.
Which? Gardening has trialled and tasted different varieties at our UK trial ground to recommend the best ones to you.
We also share tips about sowing sweetcorn, how to plant it and how and when to harvest.
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How to grow sweetcorn: month by month
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| SOW | SOW/PLANT | PLANT | |||
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
| HARVEST | HARVEST |
When to sow sweetcorn
Sow in April into deep, 7cm pots or Rootrainers to reduce root disturbance later on. Use a Best Buy compost for sowing seeds. Provide a minimum temperature of 15°C to encourage germination and good growth. Harden off the seedlings to plant out after all danger of frost has passed.
Best sweetcorn varieties
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Full testing results for sweetcorn
| Variety name | Overall rating | Number of usable cobs (from 16 plants) | Average cob weight | % of cobs with 90-100% fill | Plant vigour - seedlings | Flavour rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'ACX SS7403RY' | Sign up to reveal Get instant access to this and all our scores and recommendations. Unlock tableFirst month £5, then £11.99 per month, cancel at any time Already a member? Log in | |||||
| 'Amaize' | ||||||
| 'Ashworth' | ||||||
| 'Earliking' | ||||||
| 'Goldcrest' | ||||||
| 'Lark' | ||||||
| 'Moonshine' | ||||||
| 'Swift' | ||||||
| 'Tyson' | ||||||
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Get instant access to this and all our scores and recommendations.
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The more stars the better. Yields are usable cobs from 16 plants. OVERALL RATING Ignores price and is based on: flavour 40%, number of usable cobs 25%; percentage of cobs with 90-100% cob fill 25%; average cob weight 5%; seedling vigour 5%.
How we test sweetcorn
We sowed 14 varieties of sweetcorn in Rootrainers inside at the start of May. We planted them outside at our trial site in north Gloucestershire at the beginning of June. They were planted in blocks of 72 plants with a spacing of 35cm between them, through ground-cover fabric to retain moisture and control weeds. They were protected from badger and deer damage by an electric fence.
We harvested cobs as they matured from the 20 plants in the centre of the plot. We measured and weighed the cobs, checking how uniform in size and well filled with kernels they were, then measured how sweet the kernels were up to a week after they were picked.
All the cobs were tasted by trained taste-testers. These experts can distinguish and rate the individual components of taste, such as the intenseness of sweetness, and can identify subtle differences in aromas. They also rated how appetising the cobs looked when they were raw and cooked, looking for evenly sized, glossy, plump, pearly kernels, set out in neat rows.
Growing sweetcorn
Planting sweetcorn
Choose a sheltered site in full sun, and dig in garden compost or soil improver.
Wait until the danger of frost has past in mid- to late May. Plant in blocks of at least 12 plants to ensure good wind-pollination, but keep different varieties separate to avoid cross-pollination, which can affect the quality of the cobs. Spacing plants at 35cm generally gives one good cob per plant. Plant further apart (45cm) if you want to try for a smaller second cob, too.
Help your plants with a recommended soil improver
Watering
Water when the cobs start to form and the silks appear on the ears of corn. At this time it is also a good idea to shake the sweetcorn stems on a still evening. This ensures that pollen released by the male flowers at the top of the plant lands on all the female silks in the cobs below and helps to ensure that every kernel develops.
Try one of the best watering cans from our tests
How and when to harvest sweetcorn
Harvest in: August to September
The cobs should be ripe when all the silks are brown and shrivelled. Peel back the sheath and the kernels should be plump and yellow. Push your fingernail into a kernel –the liquid that is released from it should be milky when the cob is ready for you to eat.
Store your crop in one of the best freezers from our independent lab tests
Common sweetcorn-growing problems
Smut
This spectacular disease likes warm, dry areas and hot summers, when it infects ears of sweetcorn. It is rare for losses of sweetcorn to be serious, despite the alarming appearance of the ears.
Remove the affected ears and throw them away.
Animals
Sweet-toothed critters, such as rats, squirrels and crows, love ripe cobs. Badgers and deer are also excellent at telling when cobs are ripe, so we had to protect our trial crops with an electric fence.