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Why variation in corn plant size?

T

Tree-Farmer

Member
I got my corn planted, end of May, kinda late, but I think there's time. Planted with a 986 and JD 7000 six row planter.

Here's something I noticed: There's some variation in size. Some corn came up right away and is taller than other plants that must not have come up as quickly.

I would like to ask: Why is there variation in size? What does that mean? What does that say to you that happened?

The first picture is just of one of my 6 acre fields, in North Missouri.
In the 2nd picture, there is a small plant in the middle, a larger one on the left and even bigger plants in the row behind, which is hard to see.
The last picture shows a couple of 6 or 8 inch plants in the middle and 2 foot plants on both sides.

What causes this? What do you think?

Thank you for any commentary!

mvphoto107643.jpg



mvphoto107644.jpg



mvphoto107645.jpg
 
Was it quite dry when you planted? Only rarely see that here as we are always too wet. But this year - we got
flooding rains, worked the ground wet to try to dry it out and catch up; it hasnt rained since.

Most corn and beans came up, but the dry spots the seed sat in the ground.

Got a .35 rain 3 weeks after planting, some of those dry seeds sprouted.

Got a .3 rain 2 weeks later, and another round of dry seed sprouted.

Its the oddest thing!

Paul
 
Could be an issue with fertilizer. Maybe
something wasn't working right, and
fertilizer didn't get put on evenly. Not
enough, or not at all in places. Other
places, it got put on right. Depending on
how your fertilizer was applied, there
could be skips just like your planter don't
drop seed when it skips.

This is just one possibility. Paul has also
got a plausible explanation if it was dry
when planted, and after.

Did you plant it yourself? Or did a share
croper or custom guy do it? If so, did they
furnish the seed? They might of just used
some left over seed from elsewhere to plant
these little 6 acre patches. And if they
did, maybe it was a blend of seed, and not
all the same variety. Short variety mixed
in with a tall variety. This would just be
planted in the field however the seed came
out of the planter box.
 
wet spots in field dry spots in field,depth issues all factor in.
in our soils in southwest mo we rarely get even growth. but remember
this,WHEN ITS WENT THROUGH THE COMBINE IT WILL ALL LOOK THE
SAME
 
It's pretty much everywhere here in East
Central Ohio ground was exceptionally dry
this spring I'm 66 and I have never seen a
dry spring like this year in my life.
 
I planted my corn in mid April, kind of early here in Indiana. not long after i planted it got cold and wet and then no rain till end of June. The plants were all uneven
and the fields looked awful. The last weekend in June we started to get rain, lots of rain and once the N got to the roots it took off. Now the corn is all evened up and
ears are setting on nicely.
 
There are many things that can cause variability in
growth in the corn. One big factor can be compaction.
Another is not planting to the right depth for the
conditions. Always plant to the depth the moisture is.
Could be 1 could be 1 1/2. Fertilizer application can
also make variability in a stand as can ground
moisture in the weeks after planting
 
The same thing happened in TH.
Now the corn looks like there was never a problem with cold and lack of spring rain.
 
I'm guessing you were dry. I've got a whole bunch like that. I've got spots close to half an acre where nothing
came up at all until around July 1 after we finally got some rain. I've got corn tasseling and corn that isn't knee
high right in the same row.
 
Most likely dry plantin g conditions with long dryspell after planting. There is a lot of corn like that here. Planted early may and then dry no rain for almost 60 days now very uneven corn from it. IF the ground was a bit cloddy when planted can do that with poor seed soil contact and dries out worse so no or late germination.
 
I've got one even weirder.

In one of my fields there are two rows, side-by-side that are a full FOOT taller than the rest of the corn in the field. Darker green than the rest. Stalks like baseball bats. Runs the full length of the field.

They are the 8th and 9th row in the field., planted with a 4-row JD 7000 planter. I plant 4 rounds around each field before starting making back-and-forth passes, 16 rows with the planter facing the same direction.

The two rows are from opposite ends of the planter, so different planting units, different fertilizer applicators.

I used the same variety of seed for ALL my corn.

This post was edited by BarnyardEngineering on 07/19/2023 at 10:41 am.
 
What are you doing talking pictures of my corn? I have 7
foot tall corn and the next stalk is 6 inches. Were dry
and people are feeding hay. I do need to mow my yard, I
believe its the fifth time this year. I have 15 hours on a
new in February mower. NEMO
 
Lots of things could cause it unfortunately. You have a
population problem. The area your standing looks like a
compaction area from something a previous year. It also looks
like you had enough rain so if the seed is there it should have
come up. It looks like some of it was there and germinated
later. A sign of less than perfect seed soil contact. If it was
cold and wet at the start and planted early it would do the
same but judging by your location and size of the corn Id say
thats not it. Time to check those 6 finger pickup meters,
check your truvee disc openers and closing wheels!!! Then
next year or even go play in a patch if you can find it now and
check your depth of seed really close my uncle was planting 4
inches down once and it took a very long time for it to come
up and looked similar.
Just from a bit of your picture I dont see repeatable stripes
but if there are looking at how many rows between the pattern
is key. Fertilizer dry applicator not throwing fertilizer far
enough will be an exact pattern as will both nh3 bar and
planter depth and closing problems in the center and end
rows.
 
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