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| I can see two different scenarios. First, as you suggest, the extra GDU's pushes the plant to early maturity which just goes on to a quicker finish and less yield.
Or lot's of GDU's early on might mean a bigger healthier plant, lots of leaf area, low disease pressure with more grain fill potential, Then, as the later weather returns to more normal, cooler that grain fill potential has a chance to be realized as test weight & yield.
What it comes down to is genetics & plant physiology. I can imagine a couple of situations. One, we know that corn is very day length sensitive, at least the corn we grown here in the middle latitudes. This corn has to experience day length shortening to initiate reproduction, does that also apply to grain fill and senescence? If that's the case it might not matter how hot it's been but just the calendar.
On the other hand, if there is a physiological "accumulated temperature clock" then it might be as you suggest, higher accumulated temps gives a quick fill. | |
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Still moving along
