hot-wired nature

"in agriculture, we hot-wire the landscape, bypassing nature's control devices...it is...fruitless to argue whether the beltsville hog with the human growth hormone gene spliced inshould exist, or if we should be using biotechnology to develop herbicide resistance in soybeans. what makes us think we can adequately assess these proposed projects? only our cartesian assumptions that we know enough to run the world..."- wes jackson from "nature as measure"_________________________________________________ my little hot-wired slice of nature is growing nicely with a second set of leaves developing in the diminished november sunlight under the acacia tree...but why? the average soybean planting date in indiana falls between mid-may and mid-june depending on temperature...it can be cool then but i am willing to bet this drafty house we're in right now is cooler...so am i so off base in wondering why this bean germinated in a field after harvest in october? especially since my first experiment with asparagus seed ( and asparagus is a cool weather crop ) hasn't budged? i've been wrong before so just to see what might happen i took a kernel of hopi blue maize off one of the ears that are hanging in the living room ( and will provide some of the seed for next spring's maize ) and planted it in a container under the very same acacia...it plants around the same time as round up ready soy beans ( i planted the maize that grew on campus last season on may 25th which was also the iuncg's planting day ) and i am curious to see if it germinates or if it knows what time of year it is...certainly either the bean plant is confused or i am...more if and when it comes up.

perhaps not as much relief as i thought

"...only four of these building blocks circulate in the atmospheric commons. the rest are in the soil, and they are all water soluble. managing these elements and water is accomplished by a diversity of roots below the surface. this management scheme occurs in millimeters and minutes. "consulting the genius of the place : an ecological approach to a new agriculture" wes jackson p.151 __________________________________________________________ lots of lightening and thunder as i sit here typing...rain has ended the drought in lake county and more is on the way seemingly ( although none has fallen yet...just light and noise so far )but is it enough? these are summer thunderstorms that are spotty in their areas of coverage and they tend to move through quickly...not all-day soakers...some fields are lucky, others not...even though it has rained you can see the curled leaves in the third and fifth photos and they show that the industrial corn is still losing lots of water...more, perhaps than they are absorbing...no real diversity of roots here ( although the bermuda thistle in the fourth photo still shows a marked lack of atrazine on this field...many of those plants have gone to seed and farmer brown will be turning under a new batch in the spring to keep the rows weedy )...last year i posted photos of the root system of the sweet corn i grew on campus...they don't go very deep which is an issue in most ( but not all ) of the county...it's located at the south end of lake michigan on a glacial moraine...much of the area is underlain by sand ( dig down eighteen inches in my back yard and that's what you find ) so water tends to drain away quickly from shallow root systems...one reason why asparagus likes it here so well...but that's another blog...which could mean that the rain isn't doing the annuals as much good as one would think...the exposed ear of green industrial corn with stunted and missing kernels in the third photo could be backing me up here...the palmer drought indices may say we're in the green but the corn in the fields doesn't...a visit to the soybean field next to strack's is probably in order...tomorrow after a visit to campus....the top photo is the two ears ( so far ) on the hopi blue maize on campus...i threw it in as a contrast of heirloom versus industrial to compare with the three plants in the second photo that are representative of industrial corn's habit of producing only one ear per plant ( unless the planter skips and leaves two feet between plants..then you might see two ears on an industrial plant )