Corn is growing achingly, head spinning fast. Three weeks ago you could see the soil between the rows and today it's a dense bursting 6 feet high of green leaves. Rain at just the right time and a heat index approaching 105 degrees (with a forecast of 115 degrees this week) has unleashed all the evolutionary power of this C4 photosynthesizing plant. Corn oh corn! Your C4 photosynthetic abilities putting other plants to shame on these lush, hot wet days. Biomass? You want biomass? I'll give you biomass. Take a walk into that field- cutting through the dripping wet, hot air as you part the stalks of corn. You don't see corn like this every day or even every year. But 2012 has been good for those corn fields in Big Stone County that missed the hail storm two weeks ago. Farming is a tricky business. But every once in a while the storms, stars, heat index, soil temp and moisture align so that the crops grow with a vigor that you might dream about, but would be afraid to hope for.
So for today that corn is stretching to the blue sky and the mounting thunderheads to the east. Tomorrow, however, we're gonna need some more rain.
In case you want to know more about C4 plants- here's the campiest rap video ever made
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