GRANGER, Iowa — When it comes to sweet corn, most Iowans are familiar with the saying — corn should be “knee high by the fourth of July.” This year’s crop is ahead of that schedule.
Spring temperatures across Iowa helped farmers get crops in the ground in late March, a little ahead of schedule. They also had plenty of moisture to keep crops growing.
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Nate Christenson with Grimes Sweetcorn says the old saying “knee high by the fourth of July” isn’t as accurate as it once was. “It used to be pretty accurate, but it’s been a long time. So now when you’re talking field corn especially, with our genetics, it’s basically shoulder height or higher by the fourth of July. Sweet corn varieties are just shorter in general with the way that they work, but still with as early as growers are planting sweet corn these days it’s basically at maturity by the fourth of July.”
Christenson says they plant strategically so they have corn to sell throughout the summer and early fall. “We’re planting every week to ten days so that we have crop throughout the season. So the plantings at the beginning are bigger because we’re selling a lot of sweet corn in July. Everybody wants it. I call it ‘central Iowa’s greatest legal drug trade,’ everybody goes crazy for it. It’s pretty wild. But you’re selling a lot of corn in July and we go through September, even early October for our season.”…