Little Farmer in the Making-Brace Roots

We actually remembered to go check the corn this week.  We had to go without dad as he was planting soybeans in anticipation of rain coming in.  If you missed last week's post, here is a link to last week's.

As you can see, the corn really grew last week.  A week ago we could squat down in it and still see out.  The week the boys were being careful to not touch the top of the plants.  My little farmer in the making was pretty proud of his corn this week and I am not sure we will be able to see him over it next week.  The corn is actually growing faster than he is which is hard to believe as much as he is eating lately.

 The leaves aren't quite touching in the middle of the row yet, but surely will be by next week.

 You can now see the brace roots.  These can actually be seen above the soil surface and are responsible for actually holding the plant up during storms.  We will continue to see these develop and can be very interesting if we get storms with strong winds.

 Looking down the row we can still see the sky.  You can see that the length of stalk between leaves is getting longer as well.

 The leaves are getting close to touching and are doing a pretty good job of shading the ground.  This will keep the ground cooler for the roots when things heat up in June and July.  Shaded ground also makes it hard for weeds to grow as they have to really stretch up to get to sunlight.

 We could still see another leaf coming out of the top of the whorl this week.

-A Kansas Farm Mom