Farmers have said this spring’s cooler temperatures and lack of rain have delayed the growth of their sweet corn.
John Cromwell, a Virginia Beach sweet corn grower and member of the Virginia Beach Farm Bureau’s board of directors, said: “The nighttime temperatures in May were very cold. We had many nights in the mid- and low 50s. For us down here on the coast, that’s really cold.”
Cromwell said he had to start irrigating in May up until Memorial Day weekend because of the dry weather. Despite this, he remains upbeat as he readies for the summer sweet corn season, which runs from now through early September.
“We got everything planted on time,” he told augustafreepress.com. “It probably should be a couple inches taller, but all in all it’s in good shape. We should start harvesting somewhere around June 25.”
According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, some 4,370 acres of sweet corn were harvested on 416 farms in Virginia in that year. While it’s grown throughout the state, some of the highest-producing areas include Augusta, Caroline, Carroll, Halifax, Hanover and Rockingham counties, Virginia Beach and the Northern Neck region.
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