The Science of Growing Corn

One could just plant the corn. (Of course, there is alot more than "just" planting corn: soil prep, weed prevention and then control, fertilizer, the right seed, more weed prevention and control, possibly more fertilizer... it takes some corny wisdom to get it all right within budget!  But anyway....) 

OR one could plant the corn and keep a scientific eye on it, just for fun.  The corn is going to grow whether or not record keeping is kept or not, but just for fun and interest,  Josh keeps track of the weather each day and here's why:

I'm sure Josh would do a much better explanation, but he's not here right now so I'll do my best.  A piece of seed corn takes so many "heat units" to mature into the corn that is harvested.  From the time the kernel is planted, Josh keeps a running record of the high and low for each day.  Then with a little math following a certain formula (high-low/2-50=the daily heat unit), he keeps a total of the heat units acquired for the growing season.  It takes approximately 2500 heat units for a corn to go from being dropped in the ground to being mature.  As of June 7 we had 504 heat units, about 250 ahead of this time last year.  Obviously, if every farmer kept records their numbers would be different based on where they lived and when they planted.



Last year's records are across the top and this year's records are laying flat.



The numbers on the handy dandy chart we made.

 Josh has always loved weather and farming, so this adds just a little extra dimension to combining the two.

So, for those who follow Facebook, this answers the questions about the status I put :-)