3 days ago the corn behind my house was shoulder level. Today it is over a foot above my head

[NNN0LHI]

Is that possible? Been raining tremendously around here and it has been very hot. Next year I am going to build some kind of gauge and measure it accurately through the growing season for the hell of it.

Don

[Sal Minella]

1. In hot weather, you can hear it creaking at night as it grows.

I am not making this up.

[exothermic]

2. Shrinkage.

:D

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Ummmm check to see if someone

stole your shoes.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Corn does that.

The farmer down the road has a field that was waist high last week and is now head high. I can't wait for fresh corn.

[tridim]

5. Is this your corn or a farmer's corn?

[NNN0LHI]

6. Farmers. Wish it was mine. Lot of ethanol. Lot of money

He worked these fields really hard this spring and the timing for disking, planting and fertilizing went perfect. He even used Round-Up on it (browned some of my lawn) about two weeks ago. Round-Up resistant corn. Didn't know they had such a thing until this year. They have Round-Up resistant beans too I understand.

Don

[tridim]

14. Probably with a gene inserted for ultra fast growth.

GM corn is scary.

[NNN0LHI]

20. I'm sure he is using the best hybrid seed money can buy and the seed is very expensive

They don't spill and waste any seeds when planting either I watched.

I watched the farmer prep this field this spring and he really had to work hard. He worked harder than I have ever seen any three men work. I am serious. I started feeling guilty for not helping him drag rocks out of the field that had pushed up to the surface over winter but I could not lift them. I swear some of them weighed as much as he did. Back breaking work.

Don

[Muttocracy]

25. A large fraction of soybeans have been roundup-ready for years.

Sell the seeds, don't allow the farmers to save seeds, sell the herbicides - a few companies control a lot.


http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/genetic_engineering/engineered-foods-allowed-on-the-market.html

Some GE crops produce substances in the plant that reduce the amount of chemical treatment needed (plant produces it, repels or kills the insects, rather than spraying).

In this case, the crops are paired with the herbicide (Roundup=glyphosate).

[FreakinDJ]

7. Children of the Corn?????

[Botany]

8. Happpens all the time

And yes @ night you can hear it grow ..... gas bubbles popping really

Let us hear it for C4 plants

[EFerrari]

9. Bright golden haze on the meadow?

The only time corn I planted got that high, the ants quickly followed. They were just waiting until supper was ready.

[NNN0LHI]

12. This stuff is planted 2 inches away from each other

I can remember walking between rows of corn when I was a kid. Not going to do that any more.

Don

[EFerrari]

21. Wow. That's realy tight in. How does he harvest it?

Probably with machines I know nothing about.

[NNN0LHI]

24. Heavy, heavy equipment. For everything

All his stuff sounds like they have jet engines inside them.

Don

[Muttocracy]

26. seems like farmers have so much $$ invested, or debt in, in equipment. nt

[EFerrari]

32. How else can they possibly compete? I don't even understand

how there are any family farms left at all.

I lived on my family's small ranch for a couple of years and set up gardens in my free time, including vegetables and my poor corn field for the ants. It was a challenge trying to keep the cost under what the product was worth retail. So, how anyone can work a family farm and meet their bills, let alone eat, is a real mystery to me.

[Muttocracy]

35. it seems like a runaway treadmill - buy more equipment to compete

then have the payments and fuel bills on the big equipment, but it's probably cheaper than labor...

My grandparents had to work outside the home on top of their farm, and were in poverty by most people's standards, but they owned their house, land, and small amount of equipment and never had debt, unless they did with medical bills at the very end of life.

[NNN0LHI]

37. This is a family farm behind me

Big operator though. I can see his house behind mine about a mile away. I know him pretty well.

Don

[Blue Diadem]

34. Combines are what I see around here.

I think there are different parts that that go on the front of the combine for various crop harvest.

It can be fascinating to watch..but dusty depending on the day and the wind.

[NNN0LHI]

38. When the last few rows come down in the fall its show time at Dons

The coyotes, deer, wild turkeys, etc. just scatter in every direction.

Don

[Blue Diadem]

41. You're lucky and I'm envious.

I love watching nature. Behind this field, a mile or so away and closer to the woods and a creek is where I see quite a few deer. They may clear out going that direction since we're at the edge of town. I've been seeing wild turkeys in our area the last 4-5 years. Before that, not a one.

That has to be a quite a sight watching them scatter.

[NNN0LHI]

45. I have been told the turkeys we are seeing were released in Indiana and have crossed over here

I imagine the same thing must be happening near the Ohio/Indiana border? We didn't used to have them here either. I sure like watching them fly and defy just about every law of physics. Like a bowling ball with wings.

Don

[Blue Diadem]

48. That might explain it.

We're probably 60 miles from Indiana, don't know if they could come this far on their own or if they've released some here too.

[Xipe Totec]

10. Is the corn as high as an elephant's eye?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwiFqjyBJ2o

There's a bright golden haze on the meadow,
There's a bright golden haze on the meadow,
The corn is as high as an elephant's eye,
An' it looks like it's climbin' clear up to the sky.

Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin'
Ev'rything's goin' my way.

All the cattle are standin' like statues,
All the cattle are standin' like statues,
They don't turn their heads as they see me ride by,
But a little brown mav'rick is winkin' her eye.

Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin'
Ev'rything's goin' my way.

All the sounds of the earth are like music,
All the sounds of the earth are like music,
The breeze is so busy it don't miss a tree,
And a ol' weepin' willer is laughin' at me!

Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh, what a beautiful day,
I got a beautiful feelin'
Ev'rything's goin' my way.
Oh, what a beautiful day.

[EFerrari]

19. Ear worms, untie!

[seemslikeadream]

11. That's why you can go into the corn field and hear it growing

:hi:

[NNN0LHI]

13. I have actually seen single blades waving as if it was a windy day but there was no wind

Still as could be but they were going up and down several inches continuously for several minutes.

Don

[jpak]

18. They squeak at night - true dat

n/t

[NNN0LHI]

After the coyotes settle down tonight I am going to go out there and listen for the heck of it

[Retired AF Dem]

15. "Knee high by the fourth of July"

I guess after that anything goes. :)

[NNN0LHI]

16. Thats about what it was then

I didn't realize that corn belongs to the grass family, a widely diversified group that includes bluegrass and bamboo. But as I look at the miles of field it does remind me of someones front lawn only on a larger scale.

Don

[Retired AF Dem]

17. My front lawn?

Just got done cutting it. I'm sure the neighbors are happier.

[Sal Minella]

27. Corn and corn-fed Herefords now rather than prairie grasses and bison.

Don't think we gained a thing by the change-over, and we just lose a lot of topsoil every year in the process.

And nobody has to give antibiotics to the bison to keep them from getting sick, either.

Rocks in a field would be buried by earthworm castings if nature were left to her own -- people say rocks are brought up by "frost heave" in the fields but I'm afraid it's just the topsoil washing away in the rains.

I've concluded good black farmground is the only form of wealth worth having.

[Muttocracy]

30. exactly. nt

[dysfunctional press]

51. in recent years it's been much higher than that by july 4th...

this year it wasn't s high as in years past, but in the past couple weeks, the weather, like th op said, has really set it OFF!

[Cleita]

22. Water and heat or sunshine will make anything grow well.

A couple of weeks ago when we had 110 heat, I was watering my roses as fast as it dried up, but they all burst into bloom and showed prodigal new growth. It was the best show I ever had.

[Blue Diadem]

23. Yep, same here with the corn field across the road.

Amazing isn't it?

[lonestarnot]

28. Watch out for the itchy stuff attached (silk or silt or some such shit)

It once broke me out in hives.

[Phred42]

29. Check to see it's GM - FrankenCorn

[EFerrari]

33. If it's Round Up proof, isn't that the give away? n/t

[Phred42]

53. Good Point

[spin]

31. Obviously, Global Warming (n/t)

[notadmblnd]

36. yes, it's normal. I planted two rows last year in my little garden

and it was well over my head. I got about 10 ears of some very tasty organic corn before the squirrels stole the rest. I was also told to switch places with the beans the following year when I plant because the beans place a lot of what the corn needs to grow in the soil. I think it was nitrogen.

[Sal Minella]

49. Yes, legumes fix nitrogen in the soil and corn takes it out.

[madrchsod]

39. my back yard has turned into a forest

almost 1 1/2 inches the other night in about a half hour and been raining on and off ...waiting for the next storm tonight. illinois is turning into a tropical paradise is`t it....

if this keeps up the farmers are going to burn a lot of nat gas to dry out corn and wet beans. the high prices of nat gas and diesel is going to cut into the price the farmers get for corn and beans...

sometimes farmers can`t win for losing

[NNN0LHI]

40. illinois is turning into a tropical paradise is`t it....

Pennies from heaven as far as I am concerned though. Don't have to water my lawn and water is very expensive here. Pumped in from the Kankakee river via Manteno. Good water though so its worth it.

Don

[Hekate]

42. Rain? You have actual water falling from the sky? Wow.

You must not be in California.

Hekate

[underpants]

43. Ours shot up the last two weeks too

it was at my waist now it is over my head

[asdjrocky]

44. The corn in my garden is over 9 feet tall now.

And a lot of that growth did seem to come "overnight."

[kestrel91316]

46. It certainly IS possible, under ideal conditions. Remember, corn is a native crop in the Americas.

This is the height of the growing season. People in the corn belt say you can hear it grow in quiet conditions.

[roamer65]

47. Absolutely.

Corn loves warm, humid weather along a decent amount of rain. The corn crop in MI should be great this year, barring any rough weather.

Corn seed is sold in "days to maturity" (i.e. 120-day.) My dad told me awhile ago farmers around him are planting about 30-day longer corn than he did 30 years ago. That means the growing season IS widening, more proof of climate change.

[tuckessee]

50. How precious! It's trying to reach heaven....

...so Tony Snow will have some fresh ears.

[ZenKitty]

52. " ...so Tony Snow will have some fresh ears."

Nice.

Why would anyone type such an offensive reply. Do you feel better doing that?

I cannot imagine. I cannot relate.

Hate is a destructive emotion.


Evolve.