Ideal time to plant corn.

I grew up on a farm where early corn planting was the normal way to go. This was before the days when early planting was as popular as it its now. Dad always said the time to plant corn was when it is dry enough. Pretty much any time after the last week of march. Sometimes corn was even planted in those last few days of March. Note here that I said dry enough. It has been a few years since we have had dry enough conditions for all of our crop. Patience can be virtue though when it comes to compaction. Compaction can cause problems whether the weather is wet or dry in extreme.

University of Illinois Agronomy Handbook says that in southern Illinois, the best yields in the long term were on corn planted around April 6. In central and northern Illinois, best yields are on corn planted around April 16. Does soil temperature matter? Corn will not grow much if at all below 50^O Fahrenheit. Does that mean you should not plant until the soil is that warm. Not necessarily. Corn can sit in cold and wait to grow. If it is too wet to grow, that is a problem. My observations tell me that corn needs some moisture and some oxygen both to germinate. In warmer weather if there is a shortage of oxygen, seed can rot. Yields tend to taper off after the first week in May.  In recent years, wet summers have made decent yields even on late planted corn. 

Forty years later, Dad looks pretty smart on this one.