Well,
we can start to see the actual green plants now, instead of having
to use our imagination. You can also see that we’ve had a little
rain (about 1 ½ inches) the past couple days. I think we really
needed it too.
Wow,
our soybean seedlings have really jumped in the past few days. I
can count at least seven seedlings in this foot of row. That’s a
pretty good number of plants to have in 12 inches of row. Let’s
look a little closer.
These
seedlings are at various stages. The seedlings on the right have
cotyledons that are splitting apart. The seedlings on the left
have some new leaves unfolding. These new leaves are called the
unifoliolate leaves. These leaves are much different than the
cotyledons because they capture light and, through photosynthesis,
convert light and water to carbohydrates. Cotyledons are basically
storage organs. These unifoliolate leaves are different than the
next leaves we will see next week.
This
picture might give you a better idea of the difference between the
cotyledons and the unifoliolate leaves. Notice the unifoliolate
leaves are arranged at a 90° angle or a quarter turn of the stem.
These seedlings look great.
Last
week I mentioned that farmers don't like to see skips in the rows,
well some seedlings are coming finally where it was blank.
