Our field continues to grow and everything appears to be okay. It
hasn't rained in several days so the soil surface is starting to
dry. The temperature is suppose to be near 95 F today.
We need to pick a spot in the field that we can come back to each
time to see how the plants have progressed. So, we've picked this
spot in the field. Let's look a little closer.
The
plants are in various stages, but most have the first trifoliolate
leaves unfolded now. Some seedlings that emerged late are behind
developmentally, but that's okay. Let's take a closeup look at the
plant on the left.
Looking at this plant several things are apparent. First, the
cotyledons are turning yellow. This means they have served their
purpose as storage organs and almost all the nutrients have been
used by the plant. They will soon fall off the stem. Second, one
unifoliolate leaf has been chewed on. Third, the first
trifoliolate leaf has unfolded and the second trifoliolate is
visible just below the first trifoliolate leaf. But, it won't be
below it for very long.
