Harvesting The Last Of The Crop

When sugarbeet harvest ends each fall, many of us figure that harvest has ended for another year. Not so, for those who have planted such crops as corn, sunflowers and pumpkins. These crops may still be in the field, awaiting picking or combining, as the case may be.

Pumpkins have a long growing season, usually needing anywhere from 75-100 frost free days to reach maturity. Those who plant pumpkins commercially often do not start the harvest until October, depending on weather conditions, as peak time for the sale of pumpkins occurs from mid October to catch the Halloween market.

When harvesting pumpkins, it is best to keep a lot of stem on the fruit as this increases storage time. Pumpkins do best when completely ripened on the vine, and then dried in the sun to toughen up the skin. Once mature, pumpkins will store for several months in a cool location.

Pumpkins, grown all over the world, are members of the squash family. The Irish brought the concept of carving pumpkins to the United States.

Pumpkins contain potassium and vitamin A. Pumpkin flowers are edible. The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 1140 lbs., while the largest pumpkin pie ever made measured over 5 feet across, weighed 350 lbs., and contained 80 lbs. of cooked pumpkin, 36 lbs. of sugar, 12 dozen eggs, and took over 6 hours to bake.

Sunflowers, another late season crop used for oil, bird seed and the snack market, are native to the United States; and date back over a thousand years when Native Americans harvested the crop for oil and for food. Sunflowers can be planted a bit later in the spring, and if added to existing crop rotations can reduce some crop pests.

If planted in early June, sunflowers will bloom in early August and reach maturity by the end of September. Size of the plant caries from variety to variety, but on average sunflowers grow 6 feet in height. Many areas do not harvest sunflowers until mid to late October.

North Dakota grows more sunflowers than any other state. Sunflowers are phototrophic in the bud stage, which means that it tends to follow the movement of the sun from east in the morning to west during the afternoon. Once the flower opens, sunflowers tend to face east. There are 50 species and 19 subspecies of sunflowers found in the United States.

Corn, another crop native to the Americas, often will stand in the field well into November before farmers harvest it and use it for livestock feed. This unique crop, originally maize, comes in several groups: sweet corn, field corn and popping corn. Farmers use field corn for animal feed. Sweet corn is used for human consumption when eaten fresh off the stalk. Popcorn makes a great, nutritious snack and it also makes nice baking flour. People use ornamental corn, also called Indian corn, as decorations, but cattle or chickens will eat this variety of corn as well.

The average ear of corn has 800 kernels, arranged in 16 rows. Each kernel of corn has one piece of silk, and each tassel on a corn plant releases as many as 5 million grains of pollen. Over 3000 grocery products contain corn, and one bushel of corn can produce 33 lbs. of sweetener, 32 lbs. of starch, or 2½ gallons of ethanol.

Corn is used in such products as nylon, certain plastics, lubricating oils and synthetic rubber, paints, soaps and linoleum.

Corn is the third most important food crop in the world, following behind wheat and rice. It is second only to wheat in acreage planted.