Thanks to 3 tenths of inch of rain on Thursday night and moderating temperatures over the weekend, crops are holding together. Some wind came along with the rain, causing a few pockets of corn to lodge. Plant lodging can be caused by several reasons including rootworm damage, compaction, chemical damage and saturated soils. The only way to tell for sure is to dig up the roots. As dry as it’s been, we can rule out saturated soils as the cause for lodging. I dug up a few plants and didn’t see any root feeding, but I did notice the roots went down about 3-4 inches and flattened out – a sure sign of compaction. This location was on a headland of the field, so it is reasonable that compaction was the cause of the plant lodging. The weather service is now talking temps in the 90s again with little chance of additional rains coming. That’s not the weather report we’re hoping for as much of the corn has now tasseled or in the process of tasseling and silks are emerging.
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