PROSPECTS OF CORN RECOVERY LOOK GOOD! FARMERS AND SALES REPS BREATHE SIGH OF RELIEF

48 hours in a WARM growth chamber shows clearly that recovery is well on its way for the plants in the above photo that were hard hot by Mondays freeze.These are the same plants that are shown in the first photo of Wed May 12th's blog posting.
This shot shows the recovery of the plants shown in the second photo of Wed May 12th's blog posting.Though these plants were never in question they were placed in the same growth chamber just to have a comparison check to the plants that were hit hard by frost.
The above photo comes from a sandy loam farm in the Strathroy area.This field was planted on April 20th and had reached the 3 leaf stage when hit by Mondays freeze.As you can see the new green growth at the soil line is giving indication that this crop is on its way to recovery.DOUBLE CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO SEE A BETTER CLOSE-UP.I am very hopeful now after viewing several fields on Friday afternoon that frost recovery for most fields will be excellent and very few fields will need any replanting.I did find some plants on some sharp sand knolls showing no sign of recovery but these were limited.With the early planting date on this years crop OVERALL YIELD POTENTIALS STILL REMAIN EXCELLENT.

There are two management tips that still need to be taking into consideration. Herbicide applications should be delayed until plants have regained some growth momentum or at least one to two new true leaves.The last thing you want to do is place an additional stress on the plant right now.The other management tip is to remember that the crop will behave physiologically like it had developed the two leaves it lost from the frost.You need to keep this in mind when reaching the upper limit of growth for certain herbicides.Also remember that sidedressing is best completed with 6 true leaf corn.That means 6 true leaf corn will be reached with 4 true leaves showing on this crop - thats if you were at the 2 leaf stage when your crop froze.