Additional Dry Weather in Corn Information

Bob Nielsen put together an article yesterday on his Chat 'n Chew Cafe website with a bit more information on the impact of hot and dry weather on early corn. This adds a bit to my earlier post on dry weather and corn which looked at dryness in and of itself without considering heat impacts.

In essence, Bob is concerned about the impact of the dry weather and in particular some of the heat we've had on the root development of young corn. Not sure there's a lot that can be done unless you have irrigation.

One article I haven't seen is on the accumulative stress of quickly transitioning from periods with nights in the 40's to ones with days in the 90's. If I come across something on this I'll post it.

Late-Season N Applications in Corn

Eric Miller, R.L. (Bob) Nielsen, and Jim Camberato of Purdue Extension have recently offered an article about late season Nitrogen applications when weather or other factors keep you out of the field beyond when is optimum. In brief, the article compares corn with N applied at V7 (7 visible leaf collars) or V15 (a week or two from silking) and a control with only starter N applied. While corn with the V7 sidedress outperformed that with the V15 application, it wasn't by much and both applications far outperformed corn receiving no sidedress.

It's a good article and you should read it through but in essence, even if you're late and have to get creative with equipment, Nitrogen application still pays off.

Lots of Late Planting Information

If you get the chance I'd encourage you to take a look at Purdue Extension Corn Specialist Bob Nielsen's Chat 'n Chew Cafe. Yesterday (May 23) included a bunch of articles from several states related to this planting season.