zea mexicana

the northern tepehuan teosinte in my yard has flowered extravagantly ( three on this one plant ) however the stems show no indication of even beginning the process of forming ears...

the zea mexicana i have grown from the seed i got form the usda is much farther along in it season...

while some ears on some plants are still green ( and these are wrapped in pole bean vines )...

others are looking decidedly done...in fact a few have begun to shatter which is what led to...

me bringing in a couple of clusters of ears that looked finished...this was error...

while there were definitely mature seeds in those clusters, there were easily as many that were not...

so i changed my approach and began checking individual ears still on the plant ( after i ejected the inevitable earwig from each cluster of ears )...i took in all the mature seed i found...

which amounted to forty-four seeds...hopefully that number will expand into the hundreds as it did last season...i have had what i believe to be good luck with viability in second generation seed...the northern tepehuan in the yard is a second generation grown from last year's seed harvest..perhaps there will be no need to inopportune the government again.

would a little overspary kill you...

i found myself on the west end ( opposite my usual haunts on the east ) of a misty bean field behind the beg box stores this morning...besides the still lingering question of why so many fields are planted in soybeans this season when soybean prices settled at $328.02 ( per index muundi ) per metric ton which is down from $431.00 in may...there could be issues here...

despite the mist i could still clearly see the dead heads of "native plants" that were killed by herbicide when the field was sprayed...

what caught my attention was the fact that the over-spray from the herbicide had killed some of the plants in the berm of the field which abuts a drainage ditch that runs under the road from the adjoining field...so how much agricultural chemical runoff finds its way into that ditch...which, given the way water behaves, ends up in some larger body of water or in the water table...my municipality utilizes municipal wells for the bulk of our water ( which is why it is so overloaded with chlorine )... a visible index of the fact that there is agricultural runoff almost everywhere...how much atrazine are we drinking? the annual water quality report makes no mention of atrazine...because there is none or we don't test for it? just asking....

in spite of the over-spray ( and the tariffs ) there are plenty of bean pods and more blooms on the plants...looks like a good harvest in store...what to do with them after is a fair question at the moment...

the bean vines on the poles and in the maize and teosinte in my back yard have finally begun to bloom in earnest...which is good news in my opinion...

some of those blooms have fulfilled their function as i have nascent beans popping up along the vines as well...another part of lunch from the yard soon enough as the beans, spuds, and jerusalem artichokes come to fruition...

while i was stumbling around the margins of the field i happened on what may be high bush wild blueberries...i am uncertain of that identification at the moment and may have to call in technical support to be certain...if that is indeed what we have i will be harvesting some for seed to start in the yard...the birds will be happy in no one else...

what i do hope the birds steer clear of is the ripening grapes in the catalpa tree...harvest those soon enough...__________________addendum...i have been poling around some university extension services and the leaves and twigs look very similar as are the berry clusters, but the berries themselves seem wrong...got some ideas about berry shape and the shrubs bark...will update after my next visit.

25% more per bean

the bean field next to the supermarket is booming along...

from ground level...

or from above there are multiple beans in a pod...multiple pods on a plant...and, if you refer to the first photo, you can see multiple plants in the field...a lot of beans which themselves are ignorant of political economy and they part they are playing in the current political inanity emanating from the political centers...i read that $23 million of tariffed beans were unloaded in chins this week...they grow soybeans in a lot of different places...how long will that be going on?

looking around the field i see some volunteer dense yellow # 2 just barley poking out of the beans as well...which tells me there has been no herbicide sprayed here thsi season...

most of them have grown in clusters where the gleaners missed an ear...or, ta least, part of one...

the ones in the above cluster and this one that is on its own have not produced any ears which is what i expected...

of course there is always an exception and this cluster of plants has produced an ear...the last time i saw volunteer corn produce an ear it had silks and a stunted cob...but no kernels...we will be looking into that and finding an answer soon...

moving along tot he maize in my back yard...the diminutive corn frog has returned to its perch at the base of the lowest leaf on the stalk...patiently waiting for a meal to pass by...and seemingly undisturbed by a human with a camera...didn't budge...perhaps corn perches are at a premium ( this one does seem to prefer this plant over the others ) and there is a line waiting...

ants, aphids, beans, maize ( alphabetized but not appearing in that order )

there are a score of maize plants in the back yards spread out here and there...

there are silks and ears emerging on most...all are heirloom flints so we will see if the squirrels find them edible or if they are allowed to mature...

some may have emergent ears...all have their colony of aphids being tended by ant herders...the upper stems and flowers are covered with them..which seem to do no harm tot he plants...a minimal amount of vital fluids and the attendant sugars being siphoned off seemingly...they are not killing the hosts...

it's difficult to tell, however there are teosinte plants in that mass of green...

they have silks and ears on the move ...

as well as ears with maturing seeds...which pleases me more than ears of maize ever could...

like their domesticated descendant they all have their respective aphid herds...more sugary vital fluids being extracted...and again no apparent harm to the hosts...insect intelligence at work...

i planted beans around some bamboo poles and in among the maize and teosinte a few weeks after those were planted...

and they have finally begun to bloom...hopefully there will be beans soon...that would be gratifying...the spuds should start to come in soon and the jerusalem artichokes will be ready next month...a lunch or two straight from the back yard.