Sweetcorn – Sweet Nugget

(10 Plug Plants)

Easy-to-grow organic plug plants

Needs a sunny spot

Good for raised beds

Estimated Delivery from mid-May

£5.99

Produces lovely golden cobs with a super sweet flavour
Sweetcorn is easy to grow but be sure to plant them in blocks rather than rows. This sweetcorn variety produces cobs approx. 20cm in length, and looks lovely when it’s growing in the veg patch. Growing sweetcorn from plug plants is very easy – just pop them in your veg plot when your plants arrive and keep them well watered. See our growing guides for more details.

Number of plants: 10 plug plants

Variety: Sweet Nugget (organic*)

In the kitchen: Best eaten fresh from the garden with butter and black pepper. Alternatively, try bbq-ing them with chilli and garlic butter.

Everything you need to know about these plants

Delivery & FAQ’s

If you order now we would estimate delivery from mid-late May. Please see FAQs for up-to-date delivery info.

FAQs →

About the plants

Sweetcorn plug plants come bare-rooted and ready to plant

Growing Sweetcorn

Growing your own Sweetcorn is such a joy, here is all the info you need to grow delicious corn.

Grow Guide →

Harvesting Baby Sweetcorn

With baby sweetcorn, you should harvest them while the tassels are still blonde. Wait until the cobs reach 10-15cm long, and then harvest one to check before you harvest the others. You could get 4 or 5 cobs from each plant. Try to harvest them before they go over - once the tassels start to turn, it's an indication that the kernels inside will have begun swelling after pollination, and baby corn is traditionally eaten before that happens.

Harvesting Regular Sweetcorn

With regular sweetcorn, we always recommend you wait until the silk tassels at the end have turned a dark brown/black in colour before checking to see that they are ripe. This is because you are waiting for the kernels inside to swell and sweeten up before harvesting. [post_title] => When to harvest baby sweetcorn [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => when-to-harvest-baby-sweetcorn [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2025-03-25 13:43:28 [post_modified_gmt] => 2025-03-25 13:43:28 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.rocketgardens.co.uk/?p=99528 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [4] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7232 [post_author] => 4 [post_date] => 2024-08-03 16:34:55 [post_date_gmt] => 2024-08-03 15:34:55 [post_content] => If you're growing your own sweetcorn to harvest corn-on-the-cobs, the key is to knowing exactly when to pick them for the sweetest, juiciest flavour. The advice for harvesting full sized, corn-on-the-cob sweetcorn is different to that for harvesting baby corn, so have a read of the below before you start picking!

For Corn-on-the-Cob Sweetcorn:

The Tassels: The first sign to look for is the tassels at the top of the husks turning from blonde to a very dark brown/black as pictured above. The Kernels: Once the tassels have changed colour, you can carefully peel back the outer leaves from the tip of one cob until you can see a few kernels. Pierce your thumbnail into one of the kernels and if you see a milky liquid squirting out at you, it's ripe and ready to eat! Harvest the sweetcorn by pulling it downwards and it'll come off fairly easily, or use secateurs to cut it off the stalk. Cook it on the same day for the best flavour!

If there are not many kernels on the cob, it is most likely that pollination rates were not high enough. Each tassel connects to a kernel inside the husk, and each of these needs to be pollinated for a full cob. Sweetcorn is wind-pollinated, which is why we recommend planting it in grids to improve the chances of pollination. If you had a low pollination rate this season, try again next year by planting in grids and planting them a little closer together - 30-40cm apart each way.

For Baby Corn:

Hopefully you planted Minipop Baby Corn in rows rather than grids, as this will lower the chance of pollination - unlike full sized sweetcorn, you want to harvest Baby Corn BEFORE pollination so that the kernels remain small. For this, you actually want to harvest the baby corn while the tassels are still blonde quite soon after you see the husks forming. [post_title] => When to harvest sweetcorn [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => when-to-harvest-sweetcorn [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2025-03-25 13:43:27 [post_modified_gmt] => 2025-03-25 13:43:27 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.rocketgardens.co.uk/?p=7232 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [5] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 100343 [post_author] => 4 [post_date] => 2023-08-08 14:32:46 [post_date_gmt] => 2023-08-08 13:32:46 [post_content] => This is one of the more common queries that we receive at this time of year... if your sweetcorn looks a little 'bobbly' with missing kernels when you peel back the leaves, then read on for the lowdown: Unlike most other veg plants, sweetcorn (a grass plant) relies on wind pollination and each individual kernel on the cob needs to be successfully pollinated in order to swell and develop into a juicy, yellow corn kernel. Without successful pollination, the kernel doesn't grow and your corn on the cobs end up looking a bit tatty with just a few developed kernels on the husk. Pollination occurs quite late in the cycle of a sweetcorn plant, just a couple of weeks or so before the corn is ready for harvest. For pollination to happen, pollen from the male flowers (the tassels at the very top of the stalk) must fall down to the female flowers (the silks that come out of the cobs). Each individual silk strand is connected to a corn kernel so that's how each kernel comes to be pollinated. You can see how easy it is to get an underdeveloped corn-on-the-cob when you realise that each silk thread must rely on receiving pollen from the male flower. The chances are slim. That's why gardeners tend to plant sweetcorn in blocks rather than a single row as it opens up the chance of cross-pollination and gives a much better success rate. This is the number one way to improve your yield next year - plant the sweetcorn plants in a grid (e.g. 3 parallel rows of 3) leaving 30-40cm between plants. If block planting didn't work for you this year there may be a few other factors coming into play. A lot of heavy rain at pollination time, for example, can reduce the chance of pollination as it washes off the pollen from the male tassels. Equally, a dry spell can put the plants under stress and reduce the likelihood of releasing pollen (sweetcorn has shallow roots so can't get to the water stored deeper under the surface like other plants). Earwigs can also affect pollination, as they can eat the silks, thus making it impossible for some kernels to be pollinated. Next season, you can improve your chances by:

Planting in blocks, leaving 30-40cm between each plant
Giving each plant a gentle shake from time to time to disperse the pollen will be enough to help things move along.
Keeping plants well watered during dry spells
Protecting plants from earwigs

[post_title] => Why hasn't my sweetcorn grown properly? [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => why-hasnt-my-sweetcorn-grown-properly [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2025-03-25 13:43:28 [post_modified_gmt] => 2025-03-25 13:43:28 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.rocketgardens.co.uk/?p=100343 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) )