My Sweet Corn Likes The Heat

[Drilling Man]

  The heat is still on here, crowding 100 for the next couple days!  Me, i'm headed to my brothers, NW of here.  His place in on a nice private lake, so that's a good place to spend a HOT day!
  WELL, it's the 4th of July here in the north, and your "sweet" corn is supose to be knee high???  SO, is it??
  Here's mine,

  That fence is 50" high, and my tallest corn is 62" high!  Does this mean i have a green thumb??  lol
 
  DM

[cjclemens]

My sweet corn is a little over 5' tall as well, here in east central IL.  The tassel is just starting to emerge on my planting of "Honey N Pearl."  "Knee high by the fourth of July" originally referred to field corn - back when planting didn't get done much before the beginning of June.  For what its worth, the thought that "corn likes hot weather" is a bit of a misconception as well.  The optimum temperature for photosynthetic reactions in the plant leaf is roughly 86 degrees.  Temperatures above that generally result in slower growth rates.  Extreme heat also causes plants to do what they can to protect themselves from damage and excessive water loss.  Beans will invert leaves to avoid direct sunlight (giving them a silvery appearance since you're seeing the underside of the leaf), and corn will roll its leaves up tightly.

That being said, if temperatures are pushing 100, and your corn leaves are still flat, relaxed and, a deep dark in color - that means you're doing something right.  Soil fertility and condition has a lot to do with how corn copes with hot, dry conditions.  Plant nutrition affects overall water use efficiency.  Tillage and soil organic matter content help determine soil water holding capacity as well as how much of that is plant available.

So, congratulations on a good looking crop of sweet corn, and happy 4th of July!

[Empty Quiver]

Heat is fine up to a point, that point being pollenation, coupled with a dry wind you have the recipe for disaster.
 
Early dry weather will send roots deep and make for a better crop, especially if a late dry spell comes or wet windy weather. In my experience a dryer than normal June bodes well for a corn crop. That is if all other things are relatively normal.
 
By the way good luck with that corn it looks to be in great shape. Lets hope the coons don't get at it.

[Drilling Man]

  First of all, i don't plant my sweetcorm much before June 1, and i'm far north of you...  I use no chemical ferts here at all and i mulch the gardens heavy every year.  I've only watered my corn once this year and that was 4 days ago...
 
  Secondly 86* IS really hot for here.  When it gets in the 90's we break records and it's considered EXTREME.  Lots of SC never makes it to knee high around here by the 4th, and this year is no exception.
 
  I grew up right here on this farm, and knee high on the 4th was what every one around here hoped for, and that included SC, once folks around here started planting much of it.
 
  As for coons, i won't be having coon problems, i learned how to deal with them many years ago, so no worries there...  lol
 
  Thanks for looking,
 
  DM

[cjclemens]

I don't think many people did plant much before June.  Most farmers around here try to start planting corn in mid April.  Our average last frost date is around the 13th, but we had repeated frosts that delayed planting all the way to early May.  My sweet corn was planted May 20th.  86 is not unusual here at all, but weeks of repeatedly hitting the mid 90's and low 100's is.  Combined with a serious drought, its been a tough year so far.  I have some late planted research plots at work - they're just now knee high, and they already look a bit rough.

I still use commercial fertilizers as a matter of convenience, but I would like to make the transition to manure at some point - my garden could use the extra organic matter.  The mulching, I expect, has helped retain a lot of soil moisture as well.  I'm sure my sweet corn would have benefited from that by now, but my patch is a little too big to mulch in by hand.

Its funny that you mention Coons - I usually don't have that many in my neighborhood, and they mostly stick close to the river.  This year, we have had dozens coming into the back yard and tearing open bird feeders.  I've had to resort to some of my own population control measures since they're so numerous.  Ive been wondering if it was the mild winter, and there has been a population boom or if the exceptionally dry weather has pushed them out of the timber in search of food...

[Drilling Man]

  Well, it's been three days since i started this thread, and it's been 99*, 101* and 104*!!  We are breaking some serious records for heat!
 
  I guess my sweet corn didn't get the memo that it's not supose to grow in the heat, as it's grown to 72" now!
 

 
  That's ten more inches in just 3 days, and it's now starting to tossle.
 
  DM