The 2024 growing season has created significant challenges for local crop producers. Extended periods of drought and localized heavy rains have affected crop pollination and growth. In this article I will briefly discuss what these issues look like in Pamlico County.

Of all the crops grown in Pamlico County, corn production has been affected the greatest. Early season weather was excellent for planting, resulting in a promising start. However, drought conditions through May and June depleted soil moisture levels and reduced the soil water table below what was accessible by crops. You may have noticed corn plants turning yellow at this time with the lower leaves drying up. This was a response by the plant to preserve growth by robbing nutrients from the lower leaves and stalks. This is referred to as “firing”, and if this occurs within the ear leaf (leaf adjacent to the developing ear of corn), the ear will most likely fail to develop.

Corn Ear leaf showing signs of stress. The corn ear at this leaf will not develop.

Drought also affected pollination of corn by disrupting the timing of pollen shed with silk development. Corn plants are monoecious plants, which means they have male flowers (tassel) and female flowers (corn ear and silks) occurring on the same plant. Pollen falls from the tassel at the top of the plant onto the silks below, resulting in pollination of individual corn kernels. Each silk is attached to a single kernel and is only receptive to pollen for few days. Drought conditions during pollination results in pollen shed occurring before silk emergence. If high temperatures also occur at this time, pollen can be killed prematurely further decreasing the pollination window. If pollen does not fall onto these silks, they turn purple and the ear will not develop. The earliest planted corn in Pamlico County appears to have pollinated well this year, but later planted corn failed to pollinate and many plants are missing ears.

Normal corn ear on the left, failed pollination corn ear on the right.

Luckily, rains have occurred the past couple of weeks, decreasing drought stress for corn. However, some areas of the county received multiple inches of rain in short period of time creating saturated soil conditions that rob plant roots of oxygen. This has placed additional stress on corn plants and also encourages disease development. The combination of drought and wet stress may also encourage aflatoxin development in corn from fungi. Aflatoxin produced by various fungi can create dangers for livestock consuming this corn. Corn is routinely tested for aflatoxin when grain is sold and grain buyers can blend various corn stocks to reduce dangerous levels. However, this is just another naturally occurring challenge that growers face during this difficult growing season.

Soybean crops are traditionally planted following corn and begin reproduction several weeks after corn. This means most of the soybean acres in Pamlico County began pod development just before or about the same time recent rains occurred. This provides a positive outlook for soybeans as they have greater potential to produce average or above average yields this season. However, later planted soybeans and those soybeans planted on sandy soils were affected by drought. This why you may see earlier fields with average height plants (~3 feet) and others fields which are shorter (<3 feet affected drought). Soybeans are more resilient to stress than corn, but yields are difficult to predict until harvest.

Soybean flowers beginning to set pods. Soybeans produce more flowers than even make it to pod due to pod development being adaptable to stress.

Corn harvest will begin shortly in Pamlico County and growers will quickly learn how much drought stress has affected growth this season. Hopefully the timely rain pattern we are seeing will continue and improve kernel fill and soybean pod development. However, tropical moisture from hurricanes also occurs during harvest season and brings even greater challenges for Pamlico County growers. Please be mindful of these challenges facing local producers and wish them well during this harvest season.

If you have questions about crop production in Pamlico County then please contact Daniel Simpson, Agricultural Extension Agent, at 252-745-4121 or Daniel_simpson@ncsu.edu.