This Week In Ag #125
Just step outside. It’s brutal. You’ll instantly know it’s “sweating season” across the South and much of the Midwest. Sure, temperatures are hot, consistently now in the upper 90s across the Delta. But it’s the humidity that instantly gets your attention and triggers sweat glands overload. The dew point – aka “the misery index” – indicates the temperature where dew forms: the higher the dew point, the more moisture is in the air. The National Weather Service defines dew points above 75 degrees as “oppressive.” That’s where we’ve consistently been across the Delta; most days reaching the upper 70s.
But humans aren’t the only ones sweating it out these days. So is corn. Much like us, corn has a natural cooling mechanism where it releases moisture from its leaves. A single corn stalk can emit four cups of water each day. That’s more sweat than I release while running a 5k! Although corn loses water as it cools, this transpiration process is vital in keeping the crops healthy and productive. As water is pulled up from the roots, it is transported throughout the plant and released through tiny pores in the leaves called stomata. In addition to transporting water, nutrients are also carried and dissolved in vital tissues throughout the plant.
One acre of corn can release up to 4,000 gallons of water each day. People in areas with high concentrations of corn can actually feel it, as those local heat indexes will rise due to the humidity produced by cornfields. Corn and soybean fields across the Corn Belt serve as a giant oxygen-producing, carbon-inhaling machine. Under the summer sun, and aided by crop nutrients and irrigation, there’s an amazing amount of photosynthesis going on from Ohio to Nebraska. Satellite images reveal fluorescence levels from the Corn Belt are currently 40% greater than those of the Amazon rainforest.
Related Posts
This Week in Ag #70
“We’re always only five days from a drought.” That’s the saying here in the Delta. And for good reason. These light soils are unforgiving, as they lack the water holding capacity of those in the Midwest. Case in point this season: after a very wet May in Memphis – where we received nearly seven inches
Univ. of Calif.: Huma Gro® Increases Strawberry Yields 30%
Huma Gro® Ultra-Precision™ Blend Plus Root Dip Increases Strawberry Yields 30%, Univ. of Calif. Conducted by: Surendra K. Dara, PhD, University of California Huma Gro® Products: Ultra-Precision™ Blend; plus root dip of Breakout®, Promax®, Vitol®, and Zap® OBJECTIVE The purpose of this research project was to evaluate how a special blend of fertilizer solution and
This Week in Ag #82
Today is the 70th anniversary of a cultural icon: the TV Dinner. As a kid, TV dinners were a fun Saturday night treat (my tastes have evolved, thankfully). They were served by mom before my parents went out for the night. This invention literally changed the eating habits of our entire nation: shifting our culinary culture