One acre of corn can sweat 3,000 to 4,000 gallons (11,300 – 15,000 liters) in the heat, per DAY! The water is absorbed by the surrounding atmosphere and joins the water cycle.
This is literally called corn-sweat.
An acre is the size of a football field. That is quite a bit of perspiration. No wonder it comes back at us in thunder storms.
And we are surrounded on all four sides in maturing corn. Big tall sweaty corn.
‘Corn sweat is scientifically known as evapotranspiration. When it’s hot and it’s humid, corn doesn’t sit around and wait for a rainy day. They draw water from the ground with their roots into their stems and leaves, releasing it into the air as water vapor’ (straight from Aunty Google).
The ground under a cornfield is always dry and cracked. These plants haul out a lot of water. The humidity is extreme. The shelves in the kitchen need wiping constantly or they go silvery green. Everybody is feeling the humidity.
It is 7 am as I write and we are at 75% humidity. Not too bad!
In the absence of a breeze the plants drive up the local humidity. No wonder my head aches.
The chicks have not needed a heat lamp for days now. They are approaching the ugly chick stage.
Today R and I will move the chicks out of the brooder.
See how they sit on the bricks. The bricks are a heat sink. They warm up through the day and the chicks sleep against them or on them during the night.
Weeds for The Charlottes.
And I wonder who is making a track through the corn.
Maybe a raccoon. They climb the stalks to get to the corn knocking the stalk over in the process.
Good morning!
Have a great day. We might get a few showers today. That would be nice. The pumpkins will love it!
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
15 responses to “Sweaty Corn”
Amazing!
I could imagine Tima knocking the corn over to get an extra feed and then blaming the racoons.
Oh yes. There is that!!
Ha ha – she could be blamed for all the food thefts!
corn sweat? who knew? I love learning about this and it makes perfect sense. nature never fails to amaze me
Sweating corn does not seem to be a pleasant thing to live within. Ingenious how plants can accomplish a process like this but for those surrounded by all that moisture…can you tell that I am not a fan of humidity at all 🙂
Is that the Mad King’s garden, where the Charlotte’s are still? If so they have just bulldozed their way through all of it! Are there plans in place for that space once they are transferred out?
Boo and his stick- makes me think he is attempting to nudge the chickens along as he passes.
Good morning Cecil……….It seems I ALWAYS learn something when I stop by here to visit.
Have a prosperous day.
Jo
I didn’t know about the corn sweat although my state produces the most sweet corn in the country. (but not in the area where I live) It’s rarely humid here although someone told me that the dew point is the important number. 75% sounds high to me!
Corn and other green plants actually make water through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis depands on sunlight to convert carbon and the hydrogen electrons into carbohydrates, like sugars and starches. Photosynthesis involves a complicated cycle that uses phosphorus to transfer electrons along a chain to expire water as the end result of the plant’s sugar producing cycle. This is called the Krebs cycle. It took several generations of scientists to determine the mechanism of photosynthesis. Essentially, old water is turned into new water, as the cycle uses the electron from the atom to break the O2 molecule down and reform it into the sugar for the plant to store it and grow. Difficult to explain. I’m not a scientist. You can Google the Krebs cycle to learn that new water is created by photosynthesis. (Clean water)
That’s why forests always seem humid. Those plants are expiring water and oxygen.
The Krebs cycle or citric acid cycle also powers us and all other animals. The mitochondria in our cells are the powerhouses as are the chloroplasts in plant cells. It is visible in the lightning bug’s flash, it is the release of a phosphate molecule from adenosine triphospahte (ATP) to adenosine diphosphate (ADP).
I once had a so-called professor who supposedly had a doctorate in biology who had no idea what the Krebs cycle was and said it wasn’t important. [Yes, I complained to the administration but he had somehow gotten tenure and they couldn’t get rid of him.]
Goodness.
Actually, my state might be #2 in sweet corn production but we’re way up there anyway. 🙂
Wow! That’s a lot of corn sweat!
Hey Celi that is such interesting info about the corn sweat. I had no idea!
it was news to me too! But now it all makes sense!!