Our field is growing by leaps and bounds. Just a week ago the plants were
only 3 feet tall. The plants have great color. It won't be long
and we'll have some flowers. Let's take a closer look.
 These plants are about 55 inches tall, which means they have grown about
20 inches in seven days. Unbelievable. I counted 24 leaves on this
plant.
 This is the flower head. You can see the green bracts covering the actual
flower head. This plant is in the R3 stage. Believe it or not,
but our field will be blooming within a couple weeks.
 When the base of the flower head has elongated about an inch from the
last leaf it is in the R3 stage. Sometimes it's difficult to tell, but you
have to look closely under the flower head and see how far it has separated
from the upper most leaf.
 I found a plant that was in the R2 stage. The flower head is less than
3/4 inch from the upper most leaf.
 Well, this isn't a good sign. This leaf and other leaves on surrounding
plants have been chewed up so badly there's just a leaf skeleton
remaining. It appears we caught the culprit responsible for this
damage. It is the caterpillar of the painted lady butterfly. |
Our field is growing by leaps and bounds. Just a week ago the plants were
only 3 feet tall. The plants have great color. It won't be long
and we'll have some flowers. Let's take a closer look.
