Monday, August 3, 2015

any volunteers?

i have been trolling this field since june, when it became evident that there would be no planting in this field this season, searching in vain for volunteer corn...this morning i entered the field from the big box store side instead of the side fronting sterling creek road...this "improved" property has sat idle so long that nature is subsuming the "improvements" and while i was walking past the retention pond full of cattails the sign in the second photo caught my eye...i will not be mowing anytime soon...you can tell corn was planted on this side of the field as well by the combine mutilated cornstalks and zea detritus...you can see that the fallow field has been thoroughly colonized and i notice the annual plants have perennials moving in on them ( note the queen anne's lace in the fourth photo )...shrubs will be moving in next and...if it is left to itself...trees as it moves towards a climax community and climax communities around here mean forest...mark the calendar for today i found a single volunteer corn plant...monsanto, bayer. pioneer...all say there is no "suicide" gene in their gmo corn...that may be...but if their genetic tinkering has rendered the kernels mostly sterile seed saving is a dead issue for their "licensed" product...either way...it will be interesting to see if this plant survives and if it produces an ear comparable to ones i have seen volunteers produce in the past...stay tuned.

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