WILLISTON - Atop a hill of Isham Family Farm last week, corn stalks barely reached past farm owner Mike Isham's knees — a sign of the difficult growing year for the summer food staple.

The barometer typically used by farmers for growing corn is "knee high by the fourth of July," but for farmers like Isham, the corn crop struggled to match the mantra this year. Isham and other farmers in Chittenden County say they're having trouble growing sweet corn due to a damper and cooler summer.

Heather Darby, an agronomy specialist with the University of Vermont Extension program, said farmers around the state are seeing that sweet corn will be ready one to two weeks later than usual. Farmers in late July began to sell sweet corn at the Burlington Farmers Market, but only about three or four stands were selling it this past weekend.

Darby said a cool July and many days of summertime rain are to blame.

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From May 1 to Sunday, the National Weather Service in South Burlington had measured 15.5 inches of rain, according to Meteorologist Andy Nash. On average from May to the end of July, the station typically sees about 11.87 inches of rain. It has also rained 47 out of 92 days since May 1, Nash said.

Isham said he's expecting to have only about three weeks of corn this year, compared to six to eight weeks of sweet corn harvesting on average. And, he's hoping a corn maze he's planted will be ready by the time fall comes along.

The soil has been too damp for seeds to stay covered and in the soil when Isham uses a corn planter, so he had to replant some of his corn by hand, he said. He's also had to limit the number of times he could plant corn this year, since he plants in cycles to extend the amount of time he has corn available to customers.

"I always say there's always one person worse than Mother Nature — Father Time," Isham said last Thursday. "Mother Nature gives us those beautiful days like yesterday where the sun is out and it's 70 degrees ... but Father Time is relentless."

Isham said he's also had to plant later than usual, which means corn will be coming in during the late summer and early fall. He planted extra pumpkins to try to offset his corn losses, but he said both crops flourish in hot, dry summer heat.

"Nobody's buying corn in October," Isham added. "Sales really slow down when the kids go back to school. People like corn in the summer because that's when they have the outdoor barbecues."

Deb Conant of Conant's Sweet Corn in Richmond said in a phone message that their farm's corn is also late. On the farm's website, an update from July 29 was titled, "Still waiting!!!"

"With these crazy cooler temps at night (which is great sleeping weather!) the corn is taking its sweet (no pun intended!) time in maturing," Conant's website states. "Our latest guesstimate for being able to open the corn stand is sometime during the week of August 7."

Darby, of UVM Extension, said in 15 years of studying Vermont agriculture, this year is one of the worst years she has seen for growing sweet corn. According to Darby, some rain is useful for growing summer crops, but has to be accompanied by heat. She said temperatures in June were pretty typical, but were low in July.

"July is supposed to be our hottest month," Darby said. "This is when we accumulate the most heat units in Vermont. July is a really important month in crop development. Because we are so far behind in heat units, it's just kind of really delayed everything."

At UVM Extension's research farm, corn that was planted in May is still not ready, Darby said.

"Now's the time," Darby said. "If you have corn after Labor Day, why bother?"

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizMurrayBFP.