Saturday, June 1, 2013

Field Snapshot: Corn


 
This picture was taken about a week ago.  At just 18 days old and you can clearly see the bright green baby corn growing in this field.  When the corn was planted fertilizer was simultaneously applied.  If need be, some fungicide may be applied later in the season.  But for now the corn just needs sunlight, rain, and warm weather to grow and produce ears full of kernels. 

There are thousands of varieties of corn that can be planted.  Each variety has different strengths and weaknesses, so the variety that is most suitable for your growing season, type of ground, weather patterns, common parasites, etc. can be selected.  Just like anything in farming, there is a risk involved with choosing a corn variety to plant, but the producer’s thorough knowledge of all the factors helps to make the decision.

So as the growing season progresses we will see if the variety that was planted in this field was a wise decision, or if factors out of our control (such as weather) will sway us to plant a different variety next time.

No comments:

Post a Comment