I took this picture of one of my corn fields last Saturday. The corn has entered the rapid growth phase. With the warm, humid weather and frequent rains the corn will add another new leaf about every three days. Notice the corn is a nice deep green color. The crop is a little vulnerable at this time though because the stalks become brittle. A big wind in a thunderstorm can break the stalk and of course the plant will die. Unfortunately I have seen this more than once. When the corn growth slows down it reinforces the stalk with lignin, which gives it more strength.

There is an old saying that maybe applied in my grandfather's time that we still hear a lot today. That is corn should be "knee high by the Fourth of July." We have 12 days before the Fourth of July and the corn in our area is well beyond knee high. We have much better corn hybrids today and we plant much earlier in the spring. We have herbicides to control weeds so we don't have to rely on tillage late in the spring to control weeds. It depends on the corn hybrid, but I like to see corn about 5 to 6 feet tall by the Fourth of July. It sure looks like we will see corn that tall by the Fourth of July.

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