Corn damage from freeze?

We had record cold Monday night, with a light freeze and heavy frost. I covered the tomatoes, but didn't cover the potatoes or the corn. Of course, about 25% of the potato foliage is burned and about half of the corn is killed to the ground.

I pulled one of the corn plants and the roots seem to be okay. I saw something that said that the freeze wouldn't affect yield if the growth point wasn't damaged. This photo is more than 24-hours after the frost. I'm assuming that the whitish line across the stem is the growth point. If that is so, then I may be okay.

What do y'all think? If it survives, does the time-to-harvest clock start over with the freeze?

David


This message was edited Apr 8, 2009 12:05 PM

I think it will be alright. Corn is grass and it will come back. The recommendation is to plant corn March 1 in our zone 8B and it is normal to have several frosts after that.

I hope so! About 2/3 of the corn has wilted and browned completely to the ground. My teenage daughter is going to be disappointed if it is killed. She doesn't like tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers...or anything else in the garden besides potatoes and corn.

I'm going to invest in some kind of row cover. The frost didn't hurt me this time but I did get the message. Mother nature has been playing dirty.