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| Corn earworm thanks to Michigan State University |
Q. My corn is 3-4 ft high and has ears on it already. According to “the book”, I shouldn’t be harvesting until mid June by the ‘days to harvest’ guide. The ears are about half formed. The silks have turned dry and brown, which is when they should be harvested. I pulled one off to see what is going on inside, and it is forming, but I found an ugly green worm about 3/4″ long. Is that an army cutworm? I thought they were brown, as that looks like what is feeding on my Lantana. Yuck!
A. You may have planted your corn a bit too late in the season and this may have been because of cold spring weather. This was not a good spring for corn because of the cold weather. In fact, it was not a good spring for many vegetables that prefer heat unless you had a nice warm microclimate for your vegetable garden. The cool spring vegetables were fabulous!
You can try a fall crop of corn by planting the seed around the middle of July or the first part of August. One other reason the corn may have been short is a lack of water. If they were stricken with drought they will not get to their full size but try to produce ears on shorter plants.
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| Corn showing signs of drought and lack of nitrogen |
The insect on your lantana was probably tobacco budworm. Bt or spinosad will work great on these grubs or larvae as well.