Corn Maturity Related to Planting Date
April 30, 2009
Ideally every corn grower should be spreading risk by using corn products of different maturities every year. It’s logical to diversify the corn acres with some full, mid, and short season corn products for the given geographic location. The differing maturities provide several advantages to a farm operation including: to ensure genetic diversity; to minimize the risk of weather events; and to improve time management for harvest.
As planting time shifts later, the full season corn should be planted first for the best opportunity possible to finish well. If corn planting is not completed by mid-May then serious assessment needs to be made on what fields and what maturity corn remains.
Are the fields ready to go? Is the corn product mid or short season? What are the average GDUs for the area from planting date to typical frost date in the fall? These are important questions to think through. Generally mid May planting should have a mid season corn product and late May planting should have a short season product.