!-Com Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 13,2001 2' Capitol Region Agronomy Team * Report I & I ff Effects OfUneven Corn Emergence John Rowehl Capitol Region Agronomy Agent One of the things I will re member about the 2001 grow ing season is how dry it was during the planting season and how that resulted in de layed and uneven emergence of corn plants. It was not unusual for some areas of a field to come up normally because there was sufficient moisture in the soil and the remainder of the field came up several weeks later after we finally got some rain toward the end of May. 1 attribute dry soil as the main reason this occurred, but I also think that some factors within the control of the operator contributed to some of this. If the planter had been set to plant just a little deeper, if opening disks were just a little less worn out, or if planting speed was reduced, corn might have come up just a little more even. 1 think that we get away with some of these little mistakes in years with more rainfall, and they show up when conditions are more adverse. We also saw uneven emer gence times within a row from one plant to the next. Because of direct competition E-85 Market Development Greg Roth Department Of Crop And Soil Science Penn State Currently most ot the market for ethanol is to use the product in a 10 percent blend in gasoline as an oxy genate or octane enhancer. Another alternative use of ethanol, though, is to use an 85 percent ethanol blend that is called E-85. This can be used in many of the new “FFV” flexible fuel vehicles that are being produced now. Man) government vehicle fleets have been mandated to use FFV vehicles. One prob lem is that there few refueling stations for E-85 in areas such as Pennsylvania. We learned this summer that the National Ethanol ff w: 1 I (i of plants at two different stages of growth next to one another, uneven stands typi cally yield less than even stands. Research was conducted at the universities of Illinois and Wisconsin designed to deter mine the effect of delayed emergence on corn grain yield. Differing lengths of delays, different patterns and proportions of delayed and normal plants, and two hy brids differing in ear-size flexibility were all evaluated in these field experiments. Emergence delays of about 10 days scattered throughout the field reduced yield six to nine percent compared to full stands of normal emergence. Emergence delays of about 21 days reduced yield 10 to 22 percent compared to a full stand of normal emergence, depending on the proportion of delayed emergers to normal emergers. Earlier this year, 1 was making some observations in one of my test plot fields, 1 marked some corn plants that were varying in size in a couple of rows. I thought it would be intei esting to return to those same plants and observe tor myself how much the larger plants affected the growth of the smaller plants. The plants were at two and four-leaf ORN BITS Vehicle Coalition (NEVC) obtained a $lOO,OOO grant from the Pennsylvania De partment ot Environmental Protection to develop tour re fueling stations in Pennsylva nia. Stations will be located in Dauphin, Lancaster, Phil adelphia, and Pittsburgh. NEVC is interested in de veloping more E-85 stations around the U.S. and here in Pennsylvania. W'e recently supported some federal legis lation at their request to fund the development of E-85 sites. We were pleased to learn in a recent letter from Sena tor Santorum recently that bills have been passed m the House and Senate, earmaik mg $2 million lor E-85 ielud ing station development nationally. stages of growth when I marked them. In the meantime, 1 had been doing some reading on this topic and found what some extension corn special ists had been commenting about. According to observa tions made by Bob Nielsen at Purdue, ‘'a growth stage dif ference of two lea\es oi greater between adjacent plants will almost alwa\s result in the smallei (younger) of the two being barren at the end of the season.” I returned to those marked plants the first week of Sep tember to see what had hap pened. The corn that emerged late was poorly pollinated and nearly barren. This was typi cal throughout the field. This was exactly as Purdue’s Niel sen had suggested. As a result, many of our fields in the region have a mixture of barren and well-filled ear types that are a result ot de rived emergence 1 Ins will cuntiibute to \aiiahilil\ in the fields toi nunsime espe cialh wheie theie aie Lugs patches .of late-emerging plants. ALLENTOWN (Lehigh Co.) The wide range of uses of corn was featured last month at two county fairs. PMCGA and two Penn State extension agents teamed up to develop the displays that featured many of the food and industrial uses of corn. In Fayette County, Extension Agent Don Fretts featured the corn products display at the Fayette County Fair mid-August. In Lehigh County, Extension Agent John Berry helped to develop a display at the Allentown Fair in late August. The Pennsylvania Corn Growers Association supplied a wide range of products from corn that are available in the grocery store. The objectives of the displays was to educate the public about the importance of corn and agriculture in our everyday life. John Rowehl, capitol region agronomy agent, checks out corn fields. Corn Uses Display Showcased At County Fairs Uneven corn emergence is evident here.
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