Perhaps I'm the only farmer(?) who cultivated a corn field to kill corn. Last year there was such a bumper crop of corn that the pheasants, of which there were very few, and the deer, not many of them either, didn't eat it all over winter. This spring when I chopped the stalks before plowing, the ground was yellow with corn kernels. I should have done a light discing and let the corn germinate before plowing. But I was anxious to get the corn planted so skipped that step. The result is a field so thick with corn that I can hardly pick out the rows that were planted.
The problem with such a thick stand is that corn resents being crowded. In it's resentment the corn refuses to grow very well. When the corn was between 4 and 6 inches tall it would have been a good time to cultivate. At that time, however, the Curmudgeonette had me on a Baltic Cruise to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. I did cultivate after I got back but by that time the corn was almost two feet tall and harder to kill. It's helpful that the field is far from the road so real farmers can't see it. I do hope there will be enough to feed the critters this winter.
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