Compromised Corn Ahead
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Started by metmike - July 13, 2019, 11:13 a.m.

Watch for These Six Corn Problems in Wet or Late-Planted Fields

https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/article/2019/07/12/watch-six-corn-problems-wet-late?referrer=NLBestOf

ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) --Rather like the old Bible verse, some cornfields are starting to suffer for the sins of their planters. 

"As you might imagine, we're seeing a hodgepodge of problems, since so much of the corn was put in wet," said Purdue University corn agronomist Bob Nielsen. Between soil compaction and saturated soils, many root systems have been compromised, and disease and pollination concerns lurk. 

Here's a quick look at the six most likely "sins" to surface in your late- or wet-planted cornfield this summer: 

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By metmike - July 13, 2019, 12:08 p.m.
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This is a great article but they missed a couple of items.

Corn and in fact most crops are often subject to more potential insect damage the later that they are planted.

Winter's cold kills off insect populations, which start from very low levels again in the Spring of every year. Insect populations rapidly grow......exponentially as the growing season continues, many of them peaking late in the growing season............only to be killed off the the cold in the Fall.

One noticeable insect that follows this pattern is butterflies. You hardly find any of them in May as they are just emerging, then they explode in the Summer and by August, they are everywhere.

It's the same with moths too.  (Yellow jackets are the worst with their populations huge by early Fall-but they don't hurt crops)

Well, what do butterflys and moths do to reproduce? They lay eggs on top of great food supplies for the caterpillars that hatch. I mention this example because of how it effected my sweet corn with corn earworm. 

My earliest planted corn, could often get to harvest with almost no earworm issues because the earworm moth population had not become well established yet for that season. 

With the latest planted corn, almost every ear had earworm damage, some of it pretty major as there was an infestation of earworm moths in this area. My corn made a wonderful food supply for the butterfly larvae.........which never reached adulthood because the corn was harvested while they were still caterpillars chomping away on the corn kernels inside the husk. Some of them could feed almost half way down the ear!


Vegetable Insects

CORN EARWORM

https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/E-31/E-31.html