Category Archives: Agriculture

Don’t tell Terry! (Sweet potatoes are ready)

“Look at that!” We planted them back in March.

Here’s Part 1 of 3:


Sweet potato eruption! Part 1 of 3:
Digging Potatoes, Okra Paradise Farms (OPF),
Lowndes County, Georgia, 24 July 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms (OPF).

“Like an earthquake!” When they get ready, they crack the ground.

Here’s Part 2 of 3: Continue reading →

Blooming okra

We don’t call it Okra Paradise Farms for nothing:

Picking 10-20 pounds of okra a day:


Pictures of Gretchen Quarterman and John S. Quarterman
picking okra at Okra Paradise Farms
by John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 14 July 2011.

It’s taller than it was three weeks ago. Don’t need to stoop as much, but more times. Tasty!

-jsq

Is there zucca in there?

Italian pumpkin-like squash:

Looks like a watermelon, tastes like a pumpkin. Big plant, no vegetable yet. Oddly thriving in drought conditions.

Pictures of Gretchen Quarterman inspecting zucca at Okra Paradise Farms by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 21 June 2011.

-jsq

Weeds winning against Glysophate

Chuck Darwin was right! Glysophate is losing to mutant weeds.

Gus Lubin wrote in Business Insider 9 June 2011, Dramatic Proliferation Of Herbicide-Resistant Weeds Threatens U.S. Crops

Researchers at Iowa State University warn that herbicide-resistant weeds are proliferating and may jeopardize U.S. food supply.

In an article published in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, weed scientist Michael Owen said the proliferation of superweed “has been fairly dramatic in the last two to three years.”

Weeds are developing resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, which has been used extensively since 1996.

U.S. soybean, cotton and corn production could suffer from further proliferation, according to Science News:

“Today, 98 percent of U.S. soybeans, 88 percent or so of U.S. cotton and more than 70 percent of U.S. corn come from cultivars resistant to glyphosate,” Owen reports. Reliance on these crops — and an accompanying weed-control strategy that employs glyphosate to the exclusion of other herbicides — “created the ‘perfect storm’ for weeds to evolve resistance,” Owen and Jerry Green of Pioneer Hi-Bred International in Newark, Del., argue in their new analysis.

Oh, you mean like this pigweed-infested cotton from last year? The Palmer amaranth is already just as bad this year.

It’s not like this is news. We’ve been going on about it Continue reading →