Happy Friday! Seems that we’ve survived monsoon season here in central Illinois and are now looking forward to the long holiday weekend, complete with sunshine and decent temperatures (not too hot and not too cold) in the forecast.
July 2, 2021 Update:
Soybeans (70 days)
The soybeans are growing steadily, despite the soggy weather.
You can see how much more of the space between each row has filled in. The soybeans will continue growing upwards and branching out, all while also putting energy into growing and filling pods.
You can also tell that the shape of the new leaves has changed. Early leaves the soybean plant has are more of a round shape, while these newer leaves have more of a defined point to them. Nothing different about them other than that the new leaves are naturally getting bigger and bigger to support the growing plant.
See all of the white flowers on this one plant? All of those are future pods, assuming they are pollinated. Soybeans are considered self-pollinating and essentially pollinate themselves. That’s why you don’t see a whole bunch of bees or other pollinating insects buzzing around a soybean field – it would take a LOT of bees to pollinate all of the flowers in one soybean field!
If you look towards the ground in the photo, it’s kind of dark. I mentioned that it’s rained a lot over the last week or so – in fact, it rained every day from Thursday 6/24 through Wednesday 6/30. We were lucky in our area that we had a manageable amount of rain. We ended up with only about 6 or so inches in total, while some places 10-20 miles from us had more than 12 inches in the same amount of time. Crazy, right? While we know of some low spots in the field that will be wet for longer than other areas, I was a little surprised at how not sticky this field was walking through. I mean, it was a little muddy, but there was very little water standing and my feet didn’t sink into the ground with every step. Part of that can be attributed to the rain coming over the course of 7 days, plus our network of underground tile draining water from the field, plus maybe even the improved water infiltration in the soil because of the cereal rye cover crop we had over the winter and earlier this spring. The soybeans likely also helped.
The cover crop has really broken down over the last few weeks, but you can still see some remnants between the rows of soybeans. There’s residue from last year’s corn crop on the ground, too.
And here’s a few obligatory soybean glamour shots. Because there’s no sense in wasting a good sunset.
Corn (66 days)
The corn has been LOVING this weather. Corn is a tropical plant, and would much prefer small daily rains, humid weather, and nice low to mid-80 degree highs each day. I’d estimate that it grew almost 2 feet this week.
This is the best overhead shot I could get. I stood on my tip-toes and held my camera up as high as I could.
It’s a totally different environment inside of a corn field and below the corn canopy. Slightly cooler, shady, still, and definitely has that signature “corn” smell (yes, corn has a smell – the best way to describe it is leafy and fresh, slightly sweet).
When I got out to the field, I wondered if I’d be able to find and show everyone the developing tassel. We’re not yet to that point in this field (and I wasn’t willing to cut open a stalk to find out), but I’m told that another field of ours is about 3 leaves from tasseling – that is, three leaves will unfurl and then it’s time for the tassel to set. It’s very likely that the tassel is already developed and hanging out somewhere inside of the stalk right now. I expect to be able to find it this time next week. The photo here shows how tightly wrapped each leaf is as it emerges from the stalk – my hand at the bottom of the photo is at the uppermost leaf collar, which is where the newest emerged leaf would be attached to the top of the stalk.
And because we never waste a sunset, here’s the corn’s glamour pose for the evening.
Happy Independence Day!