Amie Bandy just published an analysis of this season’s lagging Growing Degree Units (GDU), projecting how the corn crop will likely develop through this growing season. The action point we see in her study: Careful nutritional stimulus will help keep your corn growing actively through every day until a hard freeze. We encourage you to visit the link above link, print her analysis and keep it handy for your review as the GDUs accumulate this summer.
Amie Bandy
June 24, 2019 — One of the all-time great crop consultants, Dr. Carey Reams, often said: “The faster you can make a crop grow, the higher yield and quality it will give you.”
This season — with much of the corn crop planted late — Dr. Reams’ advice means metering the most-needed nutrients close to the row, timed when the crop needs them. Much early-applied N has leached away. Amie tells us an inch of rain leaches out 2 pounds of nitrogen, and many Midwest regions had 25 to 30 inches of rain this spring.
Nighttime temps in the upper Midwest have persisted below 50 degrees, which adds no GDUs during those hours. Here’s a link to a PDF which shows how to calculate GDUs.
Our WakeUP clients are Y-dropping much of their corn acreage with NPK. They often use nitrogen stabilized with products like Nutrisphere from Verdesian. These farmers also piggyback beneficial microbial mixes on their Y-drop trips, along with biostimulants such as Vitazyme amplified with our WakeUP Spring.
Amie customizes crop recommendations for each of her clients. She’s analytical, detailed and confident. Another aspect of her advisory role: She shares knowledge with other pros in the Midwest, such as Dr. Michael McNeill and Bob Streit. (It was Bob Streit who alerted us to Amie’s analysis, linked above.)