Ohio Corn Stalk Tops World Record

Ohio Corn Stalk tops World Record AG WORLD Ag World 8-2-19 If you grew your entire corn crop like Anthony Casale grew one stalk last year, it wouldn't take many acres to fill your silos. Casale, of Wickliffe, Ohio, grew his towering stalk to a new world-record height of 20 ft., 1 1/2 inches, topping last year's record-setting 19-ft., 8 1/2-in. stalk grown by Howard Johnson, Anita, Iowa, who this year grew the second place stalk, measuring in at 19 ft., 9 in. The Tall Corn Contest is sponsored by Cornnuts, a California snack food company whose product, Cornnuts, is derived from a Peruvian corn hybrid. The tall-corn seed and prizes for the contest are provided by the company. Casale first read about the contest in a local paper and entered the contest in 1982, winning the state competition with a 16-ft., 5-in. stalk. He entered the contest again last year, planting nine seeds on May 5. He carefully tended the seeds by first giving them a commercial fertilizer and then, as the seeds grew, applying a special brew of horse and cow manure "tea". He fed the "tea", manure diluted in water, to the plants about twice a week. For continued good stalk growth, Casale says he cut the bottom ears off as they formed so nutrients would go to the stalks and not the ears. "However, when five ears formed near the top of the stalk, I left them because they were too high. The ears didn't pollinate well but I did get some seeds from them. One of his other stalks grew to be about 17 1/2 ft. tall while another one topped out at just 4 ft." Casale grew the prize-winning plant near his house. He put a support pole next to the stalk after a wind storm nearly flattened it. The final measurement was taken on Sept. 1,when he crawled on his house roof to record the record-breaking height. Casale, one of more than 4,000 tall corn growers, received $1,000 and a trip to San Francisco for growing the record-breaker. The contest is open to residents of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Cash prizes were given for the first, second and third place winners in each state. A spokesperson for Cornnuts reports that the contest will be held again this year in the same six states. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Cornnuts, P.O. Box 476, San Francisco, Cal. 94101.

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