corn...wild grapes...beetles

the corn field next to the supermarket is looking like a sea of green this morning ( first photo )...however the "sea" is illusory...the rows are thirty inches apart ( second ) and that leaves quite a bit of bare ground to be subject mostly to wind erosion...not massive losses...but small ones every year ( both this field and the bean field behind the big box store are representative of the growing use of "no til" agriculture in the area which does help cut down the erosion...but both still leave a lot of uncovered soil and there is still erosion )...much of the corn is waist high ( fourth... if you can accept my waist as representative of that measure )...but not in the shade ( fifth ) where growth has been minimal...even outside the shade zone there are still runt plants ( sixth ) and noticeable differentials in growth row to row ( seventh )...one discovery i made today is that areas of the berm of the field are over run with wild grapes ( eighth through tenth ) they have not produced fruit yet so we will be keeping an eye out for blooms as we make these weekly runs...being wild is no proof against predators...there are a lot of skeletalized leaves out there ( eleventh ) and we all know the cause of those ( twelfth ) i am dealing with these little creeps in my own microcosm...i fear the wild grapes are on their own...i will not be taking neem oil to the supermarket