Some considerations about the phenology of corn cultivation

Dear readers, corn is a plant that according to some reports is native to tropical America, it has a great importance worldwide, because it is a cereal for its nutritional content ideal for human food and is sometimes used for animal feed, in Venezuela there are several regions where large areas of cultivation have been established.

It is also important to mention that corn belongs to the family of grasses and has the particularity of producing male and female flowers separated in different places on the same plant, the panicle is the male inflorescence that produces pollen while the ear is the female flower that produces the ovules that become the seed, that's why it is known as a monoecious plant.

According to the aforementioned, let's talk a little about the phenology of the plant, which is no, it is more than the different phases of development that a crop goes through, during these phases morphological and physiological changes begin to be evidenced that occur progressively as time passes. With the aforementioned, Oñate (2016), indicates that performance is related to the different phases of development, therefore, it is important that ecosystems are provided with adequate management and that environmental conditions are favorable.

The phenological stages of plants belonging to the family of grasses is delimited by three successive phenological phases or periods, which are the vegetative, elongation and reproductive. For the cultivation of corn the mentioned stages can be defined as follows Vegetative (formation of the vegetative organs) elongation (beginning of the formation of the inflorescence) reproductive (presence of the male and female flowers).

In this same order of ideas, it can be said that after the seed is placed in the ground for its establishment, if you have the necessary conditions of humidity in the soil, germination occurs that can be during the first 6 and 8 days, there its growth begins where new leaves appear every three days and on the sown surface the crop coverage gradually increases, some researchers mention that between the following 15 and 20 days after germination and emergence, the plant should already have five or six leaves, and about the first 4 and 5 weeks the plant should have formed all its leaves.

Once established the cultivation begins with the development of its vegetative organs, reaching a stage known as elongation where the plant begins to elongate the upper internodes of the stem, to emit the inflorescence it can be said that it is the transition stage from the vegetative to the reproductive stage, flowering begins approximately between 25 and 30 days after sowing then after the presence of the reproductive organs the male inflorescence known as panicle begins with the release of pollen with a duration according to some researchers between 5 and 8 days.

Finally, when the release of pollen begins, the fertilization process of the female flowers can be crystallized where the eggs are fertilized by pollen and fruiting begins, Once fertilization occurs, the styles of the cob, known as the hairs of the cob change color turning purple, then progressively the cob begins to form the grains which begin to fill with a substance rich in carbohydrates.

Dear readers, it was possible to show some changes through which the corn crop goes through as it begins to develop, until it reaches a productive stage approximately between 4 and 5 months after sowing depending on the variety, the fruit is used for human food and depending on the variety of the crop there are some used for animal feed making silage to be supplied to animals in critical times, of low forage production by the pastures.