Ohioguy said:

The plants did fantastic up to when they started to tassel, about 7
days ago. I noticed that lower leaves started to yellow, then brown and
wither. I thought that perhaps something was eating them, and applied a
bit of sevin. Then I looked at some photos online, and saw today that
it might be some sort of northern leaf blight, so I applied daconil
herbicide.

Today has been a windy day, and 4-6 of the plants have blown
completely over. Things are not looking good! I noticed that the
plants are only just now starting to put out those tiny side bracing
roots that come down from about 1" above the soil surface, so they are
not helping to brace the plants.

I think perhaps you did not fertilize enough, and I'd suggest that
there may have been a particular shortage of potassium. (The scorching
of the lower leaves, lack of prop roots and stalks falling over point
to this.)

I plant my corn in blocks of 4 x 4 plants, 12" apart, so it isn't neccessarily
the crowding that is your problem.

These blocks get a lot of compost added in the spring, plus alfalfa meal,
plus potassium sulfate.

They get mulched with shredded leaves when the plants are about 8" tall
and get a side-dressing of bloodmeal at that time, with another side
dressing of a balanced organic fertilizer when the plants begin to tassel.

If they seem to be looking a little, hmm, "off" I will spray them with a
kelp solution (Maxicrop).

My biggest problem this year is that I wasn't able to get my preferred
variety of late corn, and the substitute is both much earlier than
described (no fresh corn for Labor Day!) and has a bad habit of open
tips, which has proven very attractive to sap beetles. Easy enough to
snap off the damaged tips, though.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

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