Happy Friday! The sun is currently shining, which is a surprise given the current weather forecast. Between yesterday (Thursday) and Sunday, we’re expected to have something like up to six inches of rain. While I’m grateful for the moisture and am glad it’s not coming all in one torrential downpour, it’s still a LOT of rain in a short amount of time.
June 25, 2021 Update:
Soybeans (63 days)
These soybeans have definitely grown this week, but it looks like they’ve been through the wringer. Between a little leaf damage from the herbicide application just over a week ago (totally fine in the grand scheme of things – more of an appearance thing than anything) and what looks like some wind damage from last Friday’s storms, things are looking a little rough. The good news is that the soybeans are still growing and all of the new leaves look great.
While the soybeans don’t seem to be much taller, there’s definitely a difference in how the field looks now compared to last week. They’ve begun to bush out, which is good for weed management and to maximize sunlight capture because their leaves will cover the spaces between rows, which we call the leaf canopy.
Another big difference this week is the cover crop. It’s not really visible from the road anymore, although you can see it when standing in the field. Like we’ve talked about previously, the breakdown of the dead cereal rye is a natural process, but chances are the wind and all of the rain we’ve received over the last week have helped that process along. In combination with the growth of the soybeans, it’s now no longer sticking up between rows.
Here’s a close up of what I assume is wind damage. Not a big deal – much like a tree, the soybeans will continue adding new leaves and pretty much grow out of it.
In good news, the soybeans are beginning to flower. This happens like clockwork after the summer solstice (read what I wrote about that last year here). The soybeans will continue to grow in size (vegetatively), but now they’ll also be putting effort towards reproduction.
The sky was pretty dark last night when I headed out to get this week’s pictures, but I really lucked out and caught a window where it wasn’t raining for a couple of hours. I really like the green of the leaves against the stormy sky.
Corn (59 days)
The corn got real tall real fast this week. Corn is a tropical plant and would consider the perfect environment to be a nice rain each day (about .25″) followed by warm, humid weather (mid-80s). While we may not quite warm enough to maximize growing degree day units (GDDs), daily rain plus low-80s and warm nights will make this corn very happy over the weekend. We were really lucky not to have significant wind damage last Friday night – the wind knocked down rows planted east to west, but stalks were not broken off and were able to stand back up and continue growing. This field happens to be planted north to south and looks virtually unaffected.
I said unaffected, but there were a few tattered leaves. The corn will grow out of this just fine.
The new leaves are protected by the whorl of the stalk. The corn is still setting several new leaves per week. Unlike soybeans, once the corn switches over to the reproductive stage, it will stop adding new leaves and will put all efforts towards developing a good ear of kernels. We can expect to see this in the next couple of weeks.
The corn is really getting tall. Crazy to think that just a few short weeks ago, the corn was only up to my mid-calf.
Knee high by the fourth of July? Nope. Armpit high by the fourth of July? Also nope – we’re there right now. In fact, it might be a little past that already with as fast as it grows.
Any bets on whether it’s above my head next week?