#corn plants

[wachinyeya]

https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/news/227272/corn-plants-solution-arsenic-contaminated-soil-challenges/

[inthecityofgoodabode]

The Week Of The Fourth

The fiction I like to tell myself is a group of Mexican druids poured one out for what these gringos did to this crepe myrtle:

The butternut squash have crossed the cattle panel tellis:

This cantaloupe is a beast & it isn't even ready to be harvested:

Juvenile robin:

Wednesday harvest:

A little more Wednesday harvest:

Fungi growing pour old pine stump:

Pigweed... it is actually toxic to pigs:

Volunteer corn from bird seed:

Volunteer millet from bird seed:

Our Russian kale has been hit hard by Cabbage White caterpillars:

But it has made babies:

Fourth of July barbecue:

Fourth of July dinner:

Blurry firework photos... enjoy:

Friday's harvest:

[dreamwhalestudying]

23/7/2024 - 3/60 DoP

Another sleeping style is simply dropping in: sleep early and wake up late. I am not sure what is wrong with my body, and I do not want to worry too much. After waking up, I cleaned around the house while waiting for my nephew. Then we went out for a very late lunch before doing some shopping. We then returned to my village to do some farm work. Last time, I could only spread fertilizer on two rows of corn plants in a bed. Today, my nephew and I completed another two plant beds. There is only one left, but the sun has almost set. After returning to my mother's house, we rested briefly before heading out with my mother and sister to shop for groceries. My mother asked me to go grocery shopping before I went home today, but I insisted on going with her because she is not eating well. Whenever my mother loses her appetite, we usually take her out to lunch or dinner at a restaurant. You know how sometimes you get tired of cooking and want to eat out.

Such a long ramble just to reassure myself that, despite having done nothing related to my thesis, I have been extremely productive in various ways. It’s important to forgive yourself sometimes.

I did not take a photo today, so I used an old gif of myself scattering fertilizer on the corn plant bed. I spread fertilizer using a pvc tube that had previously been used to transport my brother's fishing rod. This way, I do not need to bend over.

[teddy-bear-naps-and-random-snaps]

[headspace-hotel]

It is just me, or would it be easier to genetically engineer more plants to have similar yields as the dominant crops, rather than genetically engineer the dominant crops to be resistant to all conditions and challenges? The former involves manipulating relatively few genes, while the latter involves as yet unknown processes that may not even work.

The issue is funding. But we made that up, so surely we can get around it.

[reasonsforhope]

"In response to last year’s record-breaking heat due to El Niño and impacts from climate change, Indigenous Zenù farmers in Colombia are trying to revive the cultivation of traditional climate-resilient seeds and agroecology systems.

One traditional farming system combines farming with fishing: locals fish during the rainy season when water levels are high, and farm during the dry season on the fertile soils left by the receding water.

Locals and ecologists say conflicts over land with surrounding plantation owners, cattle ranchers and mines are also worsening the impacts of the climate crisis.

To protect their land, the Zenù reserve, which is today surrounded by monoculture plantations, was in 2005 declared the first Colombian territory free from GMOs.

...

In the Zenù reserve, issues with the weather, climate or soil are spread by word of mouth between farmers, or on La Positiva 103.0, a community agroecology radio station. And what’s been on every farmer’s mind is last year’s record-breaking heat and droughts. Both of these were charged by the twin impacts of climate change and a newly developing El Niño, a naturally occurring warmer period that last occurred here in 2016, say climate scientists.

Experts from Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies say the impacts of El Niño will be felt in Colombia until April 2024, adding to farmers’ concerns. Other scientists forecast June to August may be even hotter than 2023, and the next five years could be the hottest on record. On Jan. 24, President Gustavo Petro said he will declare wildfires a natural disaster, following an increase in forest fires that scientists attribute to the effects of El Niño.

In the face of these changes, Zenù farmers are trying to revive traditional agricultural practices like ancestral seed conservation and a unique agroecology system.

Pictured: Remberto Gil’s house is surrounded by an agroforestry system where turkeys and other animals graze under fruit trees such as maracuyá (Passiflora edulis), papaya (Carica papaya) and banana (Musa acuminata colla). Medicinal herbs like toronjil (Melissa officinalis) and tres bolas (Leonotis nepetifolia), and bushes like ají (Capsicum baccatum), yam and frijol diablito (beans) are part of the undergrowth. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

“Climate change is scary due to the possibility of food scarcity,” says Rodrigo Hernandez, a local authority with the Santa Isabel community. “Our ancestral seeds offer a solution as more resistant to climate change.”

Based on their experience, farmers say their ancestral seed varieties are more resistant to high temperatures compared to the imported varieties and cultivars they currently use. These ancestral varieties have adapted to the region’s ecosystem and require less water, they tell Mongabay. According to a report by local organization Grupo Semillas and development foundation SWISSAID, indigenous corn varieties like blaquito are more resistant to the heat, cariaco tolerates drought easily, and negrito is very resistant to high temperatures.

The Zenù diet still incorporates the traditional diversity of seeds, plant varieties and animals they consume, though they too are threatened by climate change: from fish recipes made from bocachico (Prochilodus magdalenae), and reptiles like the babilla or spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), to different corn varieties to prepare arepas (cornmeal cakes), liquor, cheeses and soups.

“The most important challenge we have now is to save ancient species and involve new generations in ancestral practice,” says Sonia Rocha Marquez, a professor of social sciences at Sinù University in the city of Montería.

...[Despite] land scarcity, Negrete says communities are developing important projects to protect their traditional food systems. Farmers and seed custodians, like Gil, are working with the Association of Organic Agriculture and Livestock Producers (ASPROAL) and their Communitarian Seed House (Casa Comunitaria de Semillas Criollas y Nativas)...

Pictured: Remberto Gil is a seed guardian and farmer who works at the Communitarian Seed House, where the ASPROL association stores 32 seeds of rare or almost extinct species. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

Located near Gil’s house, the seed bank hosts a rainbow of 12 corn varieties, from glistening black to blue to light pink to purple and even white. There are also jars of seeds for local varieties of beans, eggplants, pumpkins and aromatic herbs, some stored in refrigerators. All are ancient varieties shared between local families.

Outside the seed bank is a terrace where chickens and turkeys graze under an agroforestry system for farmers to emulate: local varieties of passion fruit, papaya and banana trees grow above bushes of ají peppers and beans. Traditional medicinal herbs like toronjil or lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) form part of the undergrowth.

Today, 25 families are involved in sharing, storing and commercializing the seeds of 32 rare or almost-extinct varieties.

“When I was a kid, my father brought me to the farm to participate in recovering the land,” says Nilvadys Arrieta, 56, a farmer member of ASPROAL. “Now, I still act with the same collective thinking that moves what we are doing.”

“Working together helps us to save, share more seeds, and sell at fair price [while] avoiding intermediaries and increasing families’ incomes,” Gil says. “Last year, we sold 8 million seeds to organic restaurants in Bogotà and Medellín.”

So far, the 80% of the farmers families living in the Zenù reserve participate in both the agroecology and seed revival projects, he adds."

-via Mongabay, February 6, 2024

[margocooper]

Золотистые колосья сухоцветов в лучах осеннего солнца.Golden ears of dried flowers in the rays of the autumn sun.

[sleepnoises]

my delicious bowl of glop with leaves. last time we made this it was a little too sweet and this time i threw a big spoonful of miso and a pinch of chili powder into Corn Stage 2. i recommend this

[faguscarolinensis]

Hemerocallis fulva 'Barbara Mitchell' / 'Barbara Mitchell' Daylily at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[nemfrog]

Ideal corn. Better homes and gardens. May 1947.

Internet Archive

[lionfloss]

by Thieu Riemen

[natureisthegreatestartist]

What's this? My first 'Glass Gem' corn of the season. Amazing colors, right?

[inthecityofgoodabode]

June 2023: Sunday Post

Today’s backyard garden harvest: 

Seen while walking: 

More of today’s backyard garden harvest: 

The corn is looking strong: 

We got a little rain today but these were just the clouds that thundered & threatened while I was grilling but they never delivered: 

Print left by a homo sapiens with trace homo neanderthalensis ancestry (aka me): 

This is the second romaine lettuce that we’re letting go to flower so we can collect seeds. The leaves at this stage are a little bitter (I know because I ate one) but still perfectly edible: 

I don’t think we’ll get any grapes this year. Despite the abundance of pollinators, the flowers just seem to have withered like they weren’t pollinated: 

The view of the grill: 

The view from the grill: 

[ichizerothree]

🦊🌽

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Saturday 29 June 2024

Easily grown from seed Silene coronaria (rose campion, Bridget-in-her-bravery, corn rose, crown of the field, dusty miller, garland flower, mullein pink, red bird's eye, rose cockle) is a UK native biennial or short-lived perennial. The vivid rose flowers contrast with the silvery-grey felted leaves.

Jill Raggett

[ladder-ghost]

The corn siblings and their wives [gender neutral]. Based on the crack content half baked lore of our multiplayer farm

Cara + Sam @carangel

Khipz + Leah @professional-doodles03

Connor + Elliott