Tag Archives: Georgia

Mutant Pigweed vs. Glysophate-Resistant Corn, Soybeans, and Cotton

It’s a funny thing about monocultures. They’re highly vulnerable to anything that affects that particular variety. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho writes:
The scene is set at harvest time in Arkansas October 2009. Grim-faced farmers and scientists speak from fields infested with giant pigweed plants that can withstand as much glyphosate herbicide as you can afford to douse on them. One farmer spent US$0.5 million in three months trying to clear the monster weeds in vain; they stop combine harvesters and break hand tools. Already, an estimated one million acres of soybean and cotton crops in Arkansas have become infested.

The palmer amaranth or palmer pigweed is the most dreaded weed. It can grow 7-8 feet tall, withstand withering heat and prolonged droughts, produce thousands of seeds and has a root system that drains nutrients away from crops. If left unchecked, it would take over a field in a year.

Meanwhile in North Carolina Perquimans County, farmer and extension worker Paul Smith has just found the offending weed in his field [3], and he too, will have to hire a migrant crew to remove the weed by hand.

Here’s the good news: Continue reading →

The Locavore Song

Teacher Joe Green and Pope High School Horticulture students sing the locavore song. It starts slowly, but builds to a tasty campiness.
Every time I think about the things that I need.
All I have to do is go and plant a seed.
Give it a little water and time to mature.
You can grow a miracle in cow manure.
There’s more:
I will get my food fresh from the vine
For everything that grows is intertwined
And we will not lose hope
And we will cast our vote
at the checkout line.
Give it a listen:

Moody Forest, home of the Red Cockaded Woodpecker

In addition to her popular trilogy of books, Janisse Ray has also edited a small volume about the Moody Forest Natural Area, which was on sale at her talk in Moultrie the other day. I can’t find a reference to that book online, although Moody Forest itself features in Wild Card Quilt.

However, Gretchen and I did visit Moody Forest in 2008, and took some pictures, like this one on the right that appears to be the home of some rare red-cockaded woodpeckers:

That’s just one picture, but follow this link for the others.

Janisse Ray in Moultrie, 26 Jan 2010

Janisse Ray spoke and read from her books in Moultrie last night. The place was packed with a wide variety of people:

Packed, many ages

Here’s her opening poem: Continue reading →

Floating Bottom

In the dead of winter, it’s amusing to look back a few months to fall flowers:

Red and yellow

These yellow and white flowers are growing on floating bottom in the middle of a pond. Looks like a lush prairie:

PB010502

But if you step on it, you will sink through into water. Here’s what you find at the edge of the floating bottom:

Bladderwort?

I think that’s bladderwort, which is a carnivorous plant that eats small insects.

And for another color:

Red2

Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman, 1 Nov 2009, Lowndes County, Georgia. More pictures in the flickr set.