Do More Corn Plants Need More Nitrogen?
The Illinois corn crop continues to develop slowly, with just over 50% silking as of July 26. It’s truly a unique experience to reach the end of July with as much as a third of the Illinois crop yet to reach the pollination stage. Moisture has been good and the crop canopy continues to improve, though the percentage of the crop rated good or excellent continues to languish in the low 60s. The fact that this rating hasn’t been moving much reflects the unevenness in many fields, with ongoing water damage and compaction effects, and often with yellow and stunted corn. It doesn’t help that temperatures remain below average, though as we said in 2008, cool days during the growing season can be okay as long as we get enough of them. The range of yellow to dark green within and among corn fields is a reminder that nitrogen is one of the really difficult things to manage in corn production. We know that soils with higher organic matter can provide a great deal of N to the corn crop; each perce
