Fair features slightly shorter tall corn this year

WASHINGTON — Coming in at 12 feet, 6.5 inches, a stalk grown by Dawson Zieser won this year’s tall corn contest at the Washington County Fair.

“You may not know this, but Washington County holds the record for the tallest cornstalk,” Master of Ceremonies Mike Huston said. “Last year was the record for the Washington County Fair, I think we were close to 16 feet.”

Huston said this year’s entries were overall shorter than at the 2021 fair due to the effects of events elsewhere in the world.

“Corn actually grows taller with less sunlight, so last year we had reduced solar radiation, the corn plants stretched up and got very tall,” he said. “If you remember, there were a lot of smoky days from the wildfires out west. That actually effects the crop here, it makes it grow taller. So while we’ve got a lot of really tall corn here, I’ll be surprised if we beat the record from last year just based on the growing season we’ve had.”

Dawson Zieser, who won this year’s contest, declined to share his family secret to growing tall corn, but said it took lots of water. He hopes to use the $100 prize money to buy AirPods.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com