sprouted corn and frost kill.

At what stage of growth can sprouted corn be killed by a freeze? I have a low area that ":looks" like it is dying, we had some cool nights, not sure if it actually froze, but am kind of concerned. Corn involved is from just out of the goroung and 1" to corn that is in the 3 leaf stage. Anything else that could cause wilting?

Corn will usually recover from a frost up to about the 6 leaf stage as the growing point is still below the ground. It will look dead above the ground until the new leaves emerge from the whorl. Dig out a few plants and examine.

Are the leaves 'rolling up' lengthwise?

Or do you see a color difference as in turning yellow or black?

Allan

Just leave it alone . It will do fine.

Looking pretty yellow, with Brown edges on the leave's, and just doesnt seem to have that daily growth that the corn on the higher elevation part of the feild.

How's the drainage? It might be drowning, not much you can do if that's the problem but wait and see what happens when it dries out.

Frosted corn turns black. As others said the growing point is still below the ground, so it'll be OK.Jim

It was about 7 or 8 years ago. We had a nice spring and got some corn in early and got it up real quick. It got down to about 23 degrees one night when this corn was three leaf. Everybody said it would be ok. I checked on it everyday for about two weeks. I counted every day how many plants were viable and how many werent. Each day it improved and we ended up with a stand near 26K. We planted 34K but some plants fell over and couldnt get the new leaves out and keep growing so they died. It was about this time of the year we talked with the agronomist said to leave it the stand was adequate and the rest of the corn would recover. He was wrong, dead wrong. Final decision after the fact was the corn was froze and frosted not just frosted. This one field of corn ended up with several thousands plants per acre that never got over knee high and it cut the yield about 50 bpa. We have had corn frosted before and it's never good but if it freezes it is a whole different deal. Be glad its only a small area, good luck.
bill

The growing point is still under the ground at that stage. Leave it alone, the exposed parts will die off and new growth will appear. Replanting is rarely worth the effort and worse is the expense to do so.

To see if the growing point is damaged, gently pull up a few plants, lay them on a flat surface, slice the plants lengthwise and you should see what looks like a "white arrow" pointing up; that is the growing point. If it's white, they are good to go. If brown then it's dead or dying. You can also readily see if the point was below or above ground.

IF you do replant, you will have to use an earlier maturing hybrid which has less yield potential and even then you have no quarantee that you will get a good stand or the weather will give you a good re-start.

BEFORE you replant, do this: Go away for a week so you can't see that field every day. You will be pleased by what you see after a week. It's that daily thing that can drive you nuts as the process of regrowth seems so slow.

Go fish up north for a week! That will help you get your mind straightened out, you will have fun, and you will discover you don't have a frost problem.
LA in WI

I had some corn freeze off in some areas of the lower peat areas on Fri. or Sat. night. The plants turn pale and lay down and look completely dead, but it will come back, the corn is only in the 2 leaf stage, but will set it back about a week depending if we can get some warmer weather. Got some beans just poking out of the ground, at least they are on higher ground.

We are dry in most of Mn. Got 1 in. on Apr 26 and then .5 and .6 since, so we could use some more and especially warm temps. Located in south central Mn.