As consumers look to add fresh sweet corn to their summer meals, a couple of Illinois producers say conditions have been right for a good crop this season.
John Bartman grows 2 to 5 acres of sweet corn near Marengo which is marketed at a roadside stand in McHenry County and sold to local restaurants.
He said it will be another week or two before the crop is ready to harvest, but conditions were good during pollination.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” he told FarmWeek. “Our rains have been timely and adequate.”
He is looking forward to a favorable crop.
“It’s looking very healthy and has very good color,” he said.
Farther south in Marion County, Vernon Quandt has harvested a few batches of his 5-acre crop and reported similar results.
“It’s definitely been a good crop this year.”
Quandt said he sells his sweet corn at a weekly farmer’s market and has repeat customers who buy directly from the farm throughout the summer.
“We plant 11 or 12 different times, so it’s staggered all the way through the year, which makes it more manageable,” he said.
While the planting season for field corn was delayed, Quandt said his sweet corn stayed on track, especially since it is fully irrigated.
“I started in the middle of March and the first two batches went in really good,” he said. “I like to plant it every 7 or 8 days and it may have been 10 or 11 days in between a couple of them because it was raining a lot, but it really didn’t hamper me bad at all.”
He said there were a few times he planted into less-than-ideal soil conditions but knows the variety he chose has proven success with emergence and early growth.
However, the season has not come without challenges. Both Bartman and Quandt cited raccoons as one of the biggest threats to sweet corn this year.
“They’re unbelievable,” Bartman said. “They truly do live up to those masks that they have over their eyes. They certainly are bandits.”
Quandt said it is additional work and expense to put electric fencing around each of his patches, but it is necessary to control the raccoons and deer.
Aside from the varmints, Bartman said he is keeping a close eye on earworm pressure as harvest approaches, while Quandt expressed worry about potential wind damage as the tropical storm season unfolds.
This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.