Corn Growth and Development in the Mississippi River Delta Region of Arkansas.

Corn planting date experiments were conducted in 2011 and 2012 in the Mississippi River Delta Region of Eastern Arkansas to evaluate irrigated corn growth and development and yield over a range of planting dates from early March through late May.  Many producers are new to growing corn and wanted to have a better understanding of how the corn develops with varying planting dates and differing hybrid relative maturity, and impacts of planting date on grain yield.  Corn growth stages were taken from each planting at weekly intervals throughout the growing season.  On site weather stations recorded high and low temperatures for growing degree unit calculations.  As expected, early plantings took longer to develop because of cooler weather during the early growing season.  On average March plantings took approximately 70-80 days from planting to begin silking, while later plantings in May only took 55-60 days.  In general, growing degree units from planting to early silking, matched seed company hybrid growing degree unit requirements for silking.  However, there was a trend that with later plantings, growing degree units to reach early silking increased, suggesting that high temperatures later in the season were slowing growth.  Grain yields were maximized with early plantings provided that good uniform stands were realized.