zea

i went out driving and found a corn field i could reach on foot so i could wander around in it a bit ( no plants were harmed by my 10 1/2 EEEs )...the top photo is of a dense yellow # 2 seedling ( i notice the sweet corn planted in the fields off county line road just south of my house are much larger...engineering or just an earlier start? either way they will want to be selling it by the fourth of july )...by way of comparison the second photo is hopi blue maize on the south side of my house over by seamus' soy beans...much rounder leaves on this more heirloom strain and i am looking forward to more comparisons as the plants grow...third photo is another zea family member, teosinte ( zea diploperennis ) you can see the relationship...the fourth photo is of thirty inch rows of dense yellow # 2 out in the field...all that green we'll see as the corn grows is pretty much illusion... i believe i posted photos of the underside of a developed cornfield last year showing the amount of bare ground that exists in a cornfield...there will probably be more this year...and farmer brown is going to keep that ground as bare a s possible too...in the bottom photo you can see weeds already moving into the disrupted soil to take up the niche created by the plow...i have no idea whether this is bayer liberty link or round-up ready, but the farmer will be dousing this field with herbicide soon to cut out the competition...anhydrous ammonia has already been injected with the seed so i suppose i should try to find an msds sheet before i go traipsing about out there again..farmers seem to be as much chemical workers as anything anymore...that's why there's atrazine in your water. http://cooperseeds.com/MSDS/HYAtrazineLawnWeedKillerMSDS.pdf