Given that I live up the road from Hardin County, I can tell you about the weather in Kentucky. It’s hot and dry all over. Well, dry in terms of lack of rainfall, not dry in terms of lack of humidity. Yeah, the weather’s been rain-free and miserable, which is apparently the perfect conditions for one of the rarest events in the plant-growing world. An Elizabethtown, Kentucky, farmer named Patrick Preston claims that his feed corn has been popping on the stalk at Star Mills farm!
The cause of this incredibly rare condition, which Hardin County Extension agent Doug Shepherd has never even seen before in his area? Heat and irregular rainfall, AKA this summer. Corn fields can be ten times hotter than the surrounding land, because corn stalks apparently produce heat and create energy during the growth process, so it’s pretty reasonable that the temperature gets corn-popping hot. Turns out all those cartoons with corn fields exploding into big, fluffy popcorn kernels weren’t too far off!
Tags: Hardin County, Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Star Mills Farm, Patrick Preston, Doug Shepherd, rare events, corn popped on the cob, corn on the cob popped, popcorn exploding in fields, unusual events, weird plants, hot weather caused corn to pop