Sweet Corn Looking Skinny and Tall

This is our first year of doing sweet corn and I have a good amount of rows that have me puzzled. This particular portion was on June 3rd after 2 weeks of nonstop rain. Germination was great within 10 days about 3 weeks later the deer went to town and ate most leaves back to the stalk, 4 rows were completely wiped out and I replanted those rows with the last week of June. I immediately fenced in the area the first week of July and have successfully (knock on wood) kept the deer at bay. I have been cultivating weekly to keep the weeds at bay ( no roundup or herbicide use) and applied 50lbs of N per acre per my soil test via side dress once the corn was about 6” high.

We did have a few weeks of 90+ weather and no rain but they corn shot up. Once I fertilized with N and we had days of healthy rain and warm temps they does really started to grow. Last night I was walking the rows getting ready to do some cultivating and noticed a lot of my rows they leaves and stalks are very thin looking, have already tasseled and have begun forming some nice size ears down low on the stalks. The rows that were planted after the deer havoc are very leafy and thick stalked. These rows have not yet tasseled but are the same height. Most all of the rows are just about waist high at this point.

There are a few plants here and there that have a beetle on them that I immediately remove if I see them but no real insect problems that I can see. The honey bees are really started to appear this week as the tassels are popping up. Other than needing a good cumtivate for grads control, should I be doing anything else on the skinny rows? We had 4” of rain last week and another week of storms coming this week so I know it can’t be drought problems. All I can think is it’s either aftermath of the deer problem or some type of bug that I am not seeing, even though there is no holes in the leaves. I’m trying to stay away from chemicals but would a nice spraying of Neem oil or something similar be a good measure?

Any input is greatly appreciated!!

There is a lot going on in this story. First you planted
and then had deer destroy some of your crop which
you replanted. Then your crop went through a very
wet period, followed by a dry spell.
So let?s talk about the wet period, if you got a lot of
water, if could wash the N fertilizer you put down
away. This is one advantage you could get if you
could use manure instead of bagged fert. Manure
won?t wash away the same.
While it was wet , your plants didn?t need to work,
and develop a sting root system to get its water and
fertilizer, and then when things dried out, the plants
didn?t have the root structure to be able to gather
the moisture and nutrients the plant needed at that
particular stage of growth.
Weed pressure in between the plants with in the
row would also be competition for moisture and
fertilizer.
Did you do anything wrong? No really, in a
different year you may have had very different
results. Corn is a very resilient plant, and can
withstand a wide range of adverse conditions, and
still set fruit. And the type of soil and drainage also
play a big role in how your crop responds to
different stresses.
Really the only rid bit of real advice I have to give ,
is do what you can to promote root growth. The
larger the root ball, the stronger the plant. Add
compost, or manure to allow slow release N and the
extra tilth in the soil will make it easier for root
development, water absorption, and less
compaction.