Corn likes the tropics
When it comes to the requirements of corn, it is sometimes said that this plant "likes to have its head in the sun and its feet in the water", i.e. it needs sun and warmth, but at the same time a sufficient amount of rainfall, to thrive. In the east of the province Greater Poland, where we went to inspect crops, the last few weeks can be described as "tropical", which is very beneficial for corn plantations. In the Konin district, over 90 mm of water has fallen in the last 4 weeks, with temperatures reaching 30°C or even more.
In previous years, the weather from June to August was usually not so kind to corn and drought devastated the desertified Greater Poland. This year, however, the plantations have not suffered from water shortages so far. Precipitation during the flowering period of corn gives hope for good harvests, which is a sign of the current condition of the plants. Corn in these parts has built a lot of biomass, they are tall, and the wide leaf blades have not curled into a tube. It is worth adding that the prevailing conditions are also favorable for green areas. Grass mowings give very satisfactory results.
Importantly, plantations in the surveyed area (Konin district, Kramsk commune) avoided hail, which devastated many crops throughout Poland, also in other parts of Greater Poland. There are no good forecasts for the corn harvest in these places.
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Corn flowering is a key period for yield 
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Cereals are flying like crazy
Unfortunately, the same "tropical" weather that favors corn worsens the condition of grains waiting to be harvested. At the beginning of July, most of the barley left the fields, and the yields were quite low, around 2 t/ha. Then the harvest was interrupted by more rain. It is true that high temperatures dry out the fields quite quickly, but the periods between successive rains are too short to reduce the moisture of the harvested grain below 15%.
Farmers are trying to "steal" the weather's grain piece by piece, claiming that it won't get any better and that losses must be minimized. However, this is not always possible. A quite common sight is fields mown all around, after which the harvesting has been interrupted. On farms that also raise cattle, the organization of work during this period is additionally complicated by the need to harvest another crop of grass.
Another problem results from the fact that the rainfall in recent days has been heavy. As mentioned earlier, there was no hail here, but the raindrops falling intensely and with great force "damaged" a large part of the fields. Farmers are afraid that the fallen grain combined with high humidity will result in the grain growing in the ears.
Unfortunately, the warm and wet weather stimulates the development of a new wave of weeds, which overgrow the fields and turn the fields of already ripe cereals green. In some plantations, large amounts of water led to the rejuvenation of the plants. The symptoms of cereal blackness, which covers the ears with a dark coating, are also progressing dynamically.
After several years of drought, this season the crops developed well and produced ripe grain, the quality of which, however, deteriorates with each day of unfavorable weather and waiting for the harvest. This is a big disappointment for farmers from this part of Greater Poland.
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Ears of grain turn black before harvest. Is this a dangerous phenomenon?
