How Deep do Corn Roots Go?

This is a great question though one we don't normally think about.  We all know corn will continue to search until it finds moisture.  But how far is that?  Can corn roots go as deep as the plant is tall?  Or can it go further?

According to an interview done by Agriculture.com with Ben Kahler, U.S. seeds general manager for Dow AgroScience, corn roots can go six feet or deeper.

"Last year we had very wet conditions that didn't stress the plants for moisture," he says.  "Roots didn't have to penetrate the soils very far for moisture, so there was shallower rooting."

However, go back to the 2012 drought the story is much different.  "Roots had to keep going and going to find moisture," he says.

Let's let Ben tell us some more about corn root depth.