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Poor kernel set in zipper pattern has many causes

A corn specialist at Purdue University says this year’s inconsistent weather has caused kernel set issues in parts of the Corn Belt.

Bob Nielsen says he’s seeing “zipper ear” in some fields, where entire rows of kernels are missing down one side of the corn ear.  He says it is usually caused by severe drought conditions.

“Areas where it would be most likely to occur would be those areas that have been excessively dry since pollination,” he says.

Nielsen tells Brownfield too much rain can also be a problem.

“All that rain early on certainly contributed to loss of soil nitrogen so some of these fields did eventually experience severe nitrogen deficiency and that same kind of zipper pattern or kernel abortion can occur,” he says.

He says “zipper ear” is also caused when hybrids put out silks before they are pollinated which causes them to drape and shade underlying silks, preventing them from capturing pollen.

Nielsen says although this doesn’t happen often, farmers do run into it and often don’t know the cause.

Audio: Bob Nielsen, corn specialist at Purdue University