Early Planted Corn Growing

Here is some of our earliest planted corn in the northeast part of the county. This corn is planted twin row at 8 inches.

Collar visible on fourth leaf

Much of the corn is in the seedling stage with one or two leaves. But the oldest of this corn at v3. At this growth stage, the first three leaves are collared. This is how we tell our growth stage. Look for the collar on the back of the leaf sheath. All leaves are initiated at the growing point, which is still below ground. This is more important early on if temperatures were to drop. The photo on the right shows the collar.

Estimated Water Use

At this point, corn is using 0.07 – 0.09 inches of water per day. This is between 13 and 22 days after planting. Here is a table from the UGA Corn Production Guide showing the irrigation scheduling through checkbook method.

Leaf Tissue Sampling

At this stage, we may pull some leaf tissue samples to make sure we’re taking up our nutrients from pre-plant. Sidedressing is coming soon when corn is 12 to 16 inches tall. In terms of leaf tissue sampling, we consider anything less than 12 inches seedling stage. We need to sample all above ground portions of the plant:

Corn

1. Seedling stage (less than 12″) – All the above ground portion
2. Prior to tasselling – The first fully developed leaf below the whorl
3. From tasselling and shooting to silking – The entire leaf at the ear node (or immediately above /below it)

*We need 15 – 20 samples at each stage.

We have not been able to get in the field this week with rain last weekend.  I’ve driven on a pasture and around woods edge making calls the last two days, and you can still hear the water under the tires. With projected rain coming, it’ll be another few days before fields dry out. We had a good sunny day yesterday, but it takes a few sunny days to dry things out. Some reports of rain 5 inches. Here is picture from yesterday.