Jarrod O. Miller, Extension Agronomist, jarrod@udel.edu
There is some shelling going on in Sussex County this week, with word that many fields will start on Monday. Any field planted between April 22 and May 20 should be in blacklayer, and the high temperatures this week should really help in reducing moisture content. If you planted over a range of dates, you should be able to roll through your fields week to week, depending on your variety. Most fields planted in early to Mid-June should be in R5 (dent), which you can check by watching the milk line (https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/GrainFill.html).
R5 (Dent): 2190-2450
R6 (Blacklayer): 2700
Table 1: Accumulated growing degree days based on planting dates through September 4th.
| If you planted ⇓ |
Sussex | Kent | New Castle |
| 22-Apr | 3179 | 3109 | 3000 |
| 29-Apr | 3126 | 3062 | 2966 |
| 6-May | 3018 | 2952 | 2868 |
| 13-May | 2914 | 2846 | 2771 |
| 20-May | 2803 | 2740 | 2676 |
| 27-May | 2645 | 2580 | 2528 |
| 3-Jun | 2492 | 2429 | 2378 |
| 10-Jun | 2370 | 2312 | 2265 |
| 17-Jun | 2234 | 2185 | 2136 |
To match most of the season, rainfall around the state over the last week was scattered with variable intensity. From the graph below, it appears that Dover took a pretty hard hit (2.47” on Aug 31st), but most of the state received about an average of 0.5” over the weekend. On DEOS I did observe at 5.39 inch rainfall in Oakley and 4.20 inches at the Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge.
