Fieldwork timeline

The field involves a lot of moving parts, and if we get something wrong we have to wait a whole year to repeat it, so it's worth doing right. Here is the basic timeline we follow each year:

Spring

• January - Determine major experiments for the year. Contact farm manager(s)
• February - Determine plots in each experiment and fill out the template for new field experiments.
  • Includes determining which seed packet each plot will come from
• March - Begin pulling and packing seed
• April - Planting
  • Hybrids (=G2F) are usually planted between April 1 and 15
  • Inbreds (=Nursery) are usually planted 2-3 weeks later because they don't handle cool temperatures as well.

Summer

• May - Weed control. Even with pre-emergent herbicide, the field needs to be weeded until the corn starts to shade them out
• June - July - Phenotyping and pollination
• August - Harvest
  • Hand-harvested plots are usually brought in ~7 weeks after pollination
  • Machine-harvest plots are whenever we can get Statewide Variety on site (usually end of August)

Fall

• September - December - Handle seed registration for the nursery