casualty ( and more to come i fear)

i went to campus this evening after work and was greeted by one of the female asparagus plants, snapped off about three inches above the ground...i had staked the taller asparagus in an upright position to support it some time ago...this particular plant was affixed to the stake at three different points well above where it was broken so i am inclined to discount wind damage as the cause...the broken stalk was stil attached to the stake at all three points and the stake was leaning over...something or someone seems to have run into it accidentally i assume since it was the only plant damaged in the garden...a rooting critter or someone with vandalous intent would have been more thorough...that's life...the apple trees in the back are violently unhappy as well and one of the potted zea diploperennis in my yard is quite yellowed...surely a sign of too much water...i have moved it to drier ground and hope for a recovery...hope ( ineffective as it is) springs eternal for the trees too...not everything is a success...there were failures last season and they should be expected this time around as well...unfortunately it was one of the female asparagus plants that was going to seed...i recovered the "berries", but am unsure if they are viable since they obviously are not ripe enough for the rachis to shatter...i will do some research and try to plant them if necessary...the other female is intact and i still hope to get ripened, viable seed...i just mulched the asparagus last week so i dug the mulch back from the area around the broken stalk so the root can have an easier time pushing a replacement spear through to the surface...my hope it that it is early enough in the season yet that i can obtain another batch of seed from this plant...the asparagus is a hardy perennial and this certainly does not mean the demise of the plant...a setback, not a termination...the bottom photo is zea diploperennis ( more photos in the apendix below) because i am still geeked about the success we have had so far...wherever she is kathy is geeked too...teosinte was a special part of this project for her.