High Winds and Tall Corn Don’t Mix

Tonight's storm blowing through our area.

We had an extended family get together at my parent’s house Saturday night while a storm came through.  We’ve gotten some pretty good rains lately but none of them have come with much wind.  This one had some pretty good winds and I was able to go up to the second floor and get some video of the corn outside getting blown around.  You can’t see the difference in my video, but the corn nearest the house isn’t ours.  About halfway between the house and the shed in distance is where one of our fields starts.

Strong winds and hail aren’t much of a problem early in the growing season.  Corn is a grass not unlike wheat in many ways.  Early on it’s growing point is low to the ground and even plants that appear severely damaged will often turn out just fine because the growing point isn’t damaged.  But by this time of the season the plants are essentially fully grown and are now focusing all their energy into making grain.  So if the plant lodges (falls over) now the chances of recovery are low.  This can be a bigger problem in a wet growing season because the crops may not need to grow deep roots to find water.  Shallow root systems can come up out of the ground when corn is pushed over by wind.  If the plant survives it might “gooseneck” and part the stalk will right itself, but that makes it a pain to harvest.

You get a little nervous when you see this kind of thing late in the season, but there’s nothing you can do about it.

Update. My sister sent me a text today. This is a picture she took of our popcorn today. I suppose we'll be inspecting for more damage the first of the week.