That's a really good question. Our best planting window was the middle of March and no one was ready to plant. Those who did saw corn and beans emerge just in time for the frost that hit parts of the midwest around April 12. You don't hear much from those people but the corn planted early here looks pretty good.
We have had over 4 inches this week across much of the cornbelt and I picked up another inch to two inches last night. There won't be any planting around here for at least a week and this pattern seems to be here for awhile so it might be June 1 before we talk about planting again.
In other news, I see EJ Potter, "The Michigan Madman" passed away. He was a guy who liked to go fast and "put engine where they weren't intended to be." He stuck a V8 Chevy in a motorcycle and was clocked by the state patrol at 146 MPH in the 60's. He understood about any kind of engine and loved the Allison V12 aircraft engines and even named his daughter after them. His Double Ugly twin V12 Allison tractor was far advanced in those days and he usually won first place, even after blowing a connecting rod on one pass.
We had a great time at Brynn's Grandparent celebration at Sonshine Preschool yesterday. It was broken into 15 minute stations of all of the kinds of fun and learning she had at Sonshine. The pastor quoted from the Bible how we as elders have the responsibility of passing down the wisdom we have gained in our lives. Everyone went home with a really good feeling about learning and parenting.
I have been thinking of writing about ethics in computers. I am talking about the ones in our automobiles. Flo on the Progressive commercials is promoting cheaper car insurance rates if you snap their computer monitor into your module.
Do you think that is ethical? Would you do it to save money?
Ed Winkle
We didn't miss our planting window here. It just never opened. It is starting to look like a replay of last year. Just hope we get a long open fall like last year's was.
ReplyDeleteWhen you plant early and get rain and cold weather then it would have been better to wait. When you look back and think that it didn't rain and you could have planted you forget that it sure could have gone the other way, especially with the random weather we have had. That is a lot of money in seed and fertilizer to risk. The corn looks good in your neighborhood and people think they were smart because they won the roll of the dice.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed more likely to go the other way.
Just my opinion.
For me, it's timing the planting to minimize the stress. Planting days are critical. Those few days in March were good, and maybe a few in April. We haven't had any in May, yet. If I can plant in warm soil and it turns cold, the seed can make it. If it turns cold and then saturated, it's more difficult. That's what happened to some April plantings around here. Timing is everything but waiting until ideal weather never worked for me until last year when we had no planting window like Ralph says.
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