MONCLOVA, Ohio — With the Fourth of July around the corner, the thought of food, fun and fireworks comes to mind.
But for farmers, keeping their corn fields alive and well during the summer months is all that matters. So will the saying "knee high by Fourth of July" apply this year?
The hot weather we have had over the past couple of weeks and the extreme rainfall last week, has genuinely left farmers at Stevens Gardens astonished. But, Stevens Gardens co-owner Debbie Stevens-Laux said the recent extreme weather is not necessarily a bad thing.
The wetter and warmer above-average spring and summer have brought challenges to the farm, she said. But as we get closer to the Fourth of July, this is the time when corn really needs to start to hit its growth spurt.
"'Knee high by Fourth of July' is kind of antiquated. It’s what they used to look for. Now, we actually expect it to be higher. This year, we’re going to be about 'waist high at Fourth of July,'" she said. "Some years, it's been 'chest high at Fourth of July,' so it just depends on when we can get the corn in and with the growing season is like."
With the record rainfall in April and farmers having to wait to plant, they were worried. But recently, the heat wave and heavy rain has helped a bit .
"The 2024 growing season has been a very strange one for us and everybody else around here. Last year we dealt with the smoke which slowed everything down," Stevens-Laux said. "This year we had an early spring that brought everything on early. And then, we got all the heat when everything was just starting to come in and it turned everything at once."
As our climate continues to warm and we start to see above average temperatures, the saying knee high by Fourth of July will be a thing of the past .
"The corn will definitely get taller when it’s got a lot of heat. A lot of heat and a lot of water," Stevens-Laux said. "There’s been years that we’ve actually had some of these corn stalks that her measure up to 14-foot, so they will get absolutely huge. But we like to see it about 10-foot tall."
Stevens-Laux said that due to the extreme heat we saw a couple of weeks ago, sweet corn will actually be ready just in time for the Fourth of July, which she said is actually pretty early.
When it comes to field corn, it is right on schedule.
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