Variety traits

Vegetation period — sweet corn

Zea mays L. subsp. mays (Sweet Corn Group)

The vegetation period of sweet corn determines the time from emergence to technical maturity and is calculated primarily using the sum of active temperatures above +10°C, as calendar dates are highly dependent on weather conditions.

In the reference 95 varieties crop Sweet corn, where this is mentioned in the description.

For sweet corn, the vegetation period ranges from 60 to 140 days depending on the maturity group, which spans gradations from early to late-maturing varieties. Due to the crop's high sensitivity to air temperature, a more accurate method for predicting maturity is the calculation of heat units, where the base value of +10°C is subtracted from the average daily temperature.

Harvesting should be carried out within a narrow window of the milk stage, the duration of which is critically reduced at temperatures above +29°C. A benchmark for starting harvest is the period following the appearance of silks on 50% of the plants, which usually totals 18–23 days, but may decrease to 15 days or less under hot conditions.

The duration of the sweet corn growing season is significantly influenced by external factors: increasing day length and low temperatures slow down plant development, while excessive nitrogen fertilization can cause an undesirable extension of the ripening period. Planning a product supply chain is achieved by selecting hybrids of different maturity or through staggered planting at 15–20 day intervals.

General information about the subject — on the page Vegetation period.

Sources8

Varieties of Sweet corn mentioned in the description

Selection based on the description text, not on official evaluation: these data are absent from registers. For specific variety details, please refer to its profile.