I don't tend to have too many insect problems with my corn. But the earlier plantings do seem to produce more, probably because they get more moisture earlier in the season.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Basically true. Depends somewhat on the type of pests you have present. In this part of Georgia, the European corn borer is murder on late planted corn. Army worms are late emerging and early corn be harvested before they arrive. Earworms get worse as the season progesses.

Here is a link that might be useful: Diagnosing Corn problems

farmerdilla

Thanks. That's a great link.

Corn earworms and corn rootworm beetles get worse here on later corn. I didn't have any ear worms last year even on the 8th planting, but those rootworm beetles can be horrible here in the corn belt.

Wayne

They show up here as cucumber beetles at a later stage of development, so in addition to corn damage, cucurbits and melons are also damaged by them.

I may be able to avoid the rootworm damage to corn if I plant it early enough (glad to know that's an answer), but the cucurbits and melons are another matter, since their productive time is throughout the entire summer. The beetles were a terrible terrible infestation during the summer of 2006 and really chewed on my melons, I believe because my garden patch was at the edge of a cornfield. But the field lay fallow during the summer of 2007, and I saw hardly any of them last summer.

Who knows what 2008 holds...

Just remember to let the soil temp get to about 60 degrees or warmer at planting depth before planting. If it is staying cooler, the corn will be very slow to germinate and may rot in the soil.