 Our field is starting to look like a real sunflower field. It's been
nine days since we last looked at our field. You can really see a
difference. We've been getting good moisture and the warm temperatures
have been just right for sunflower plants.
 This is a view of a plant that's in the V10 to V11 stage. These plants
are putting on about 2 to 3 leaves per week. The leaves are a nice
dark shade of green, which means these plants have an adequate amount of
nitrogen. If they were nitrogen deficient, the leaves would be lighter
green to yellow.
 What do you notice here? The ground looks rougher and there are no
weeds! We had to run a cultivator through the field to get rid of all
the cocklebur plants. It would appear that we did a pretty good job, but we
can't get them all.
 Well, this is something you don't see very often. Someone hoeing
weeds. This someone is Dr. Dale Fjell, crops specialist. Because the
cultivator can't get too close to the plants, some weeds escape. So, Dale is
hoeing out the weeds that are next to the plants.
 This small plant is not even half the size of the one next to it. It
emerged much later than the other plants. Farmers don't like to see this.
This little plant will survive and it will develop a late flower head, but
it won't be very competitive with its neighbors and it won't produce much
seed.
 I've been wondering what critter has been chewing holes in the
leaves. We caught this grasshopper almost in the act. This is typical
grasshopper damage.
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Our field is starting to look like a real sunflower field. It's been
nine days since we last looked at our field. You can really see a
difference. We've been getting good moisture and the warm temperatures
have been just right for sunflower plants.
