'Lark' F1 Sweetcorn - Zea mays

'Lark F1' sweet corn is a midseason tendersweet variety that is recommended for growing in regions with shorter, cooler summers. Each plant produces 2 to 3 ears filled with soft, very sweet golden yellow kernels. Delicious eaten raw in a salad or grilled on the barbecue with a knob of butter! Sow in spring and harvest from July to October.

Sweet corn (Zea mays), also known as pole corn or sugar corn, is a form of maize that has a particularly high sugar content due to a naturally occurring genetic mutation. It belongs to the Gramineae family alongside wheat, barley and rice. It is highly nutritious, containing more protein and five times more fibre than rice. It is also an excellent source of B vitamins, vitamin C, minerals and trace elements. It has a low glycemic index.

Sweet corn likes deep, light, cool soil that is rich in organic matter. It is a heat-loving plant that needs plenty of sunshine to grow. It can be used to create attractive borders around your vegetable garden and individual plots whilst providing valuable shade for vegetables such as lettuces or cabbages.

Harvesting: Sweet corn is harvested 80 to 120 days after sowing depending on the amount of sunshine and water it has received. The ears are ready to be picked when the silks start to turn brown and the kernels are well developed. Check for ripeness by piercing a kernel with your fingernail - it should be tender and milky. When harvested too late, the sugars turn into starch and the skin becomes tough.

Storing: after harvesting, remove the green husk that is wrapped around the ear. Use quickly, the fresher the better! Sweet corn can also be cooked and frozen or preserved in jars for later use.

Good to know: Traditionally, maize crops were grown alongside squash and bean plants in Central and South America in a system known as Milpa agriculture. Beans would enrich the soil with nitrogen, squash plants would act as ground cover and maize plants would provide support for the beans to scramble up. Start out by sowing your maize plants. When they are about 10 cm tall, sow 2 bean seeds and 2 squash seeds around each young plant.

NB: This variety is marked F1 for "F1 hybrid" meaning that its qualities are derived from carefully selected parent plants. This results in a variety that is both full of flavour and resistant to diseases. Sometimes criticised or wrongly confused with GMOs, F1 hybrid seeds have the advantage of producing reliable, uniform, disease resistant plants. Unfortunately, these qualities will not be passed on to following generations.