Thanks for the interest, fellas. Here is the latest on the dove field we planted on May 9, a Thursday. I sprayed it on Saturday, the 11th, and stopped to check on germination. Here's how the seed looked after 40 hours in moist soil. The soil temps were a little on the cool side, so it caused germination to be a tad slow, but not bad.
Note that this soil is very sandy. Moisture leaves it in a hurry in warm, windy conditions, so putting the seed at the proper depth, for the current and future conditions, is important.
Dropped by the field on the following Monday morning, the 13th, and this is how it looked. Soil was cracking up and down the rows from the seed pushing to the top. (Ever wondered how it knows which way is up? Me, too.)
Now, we see the way it looked yesterday afternoon, Saturday, 9 days after planting. We have a really good stand of plants, with timely emergence which means all will be at the same stage of growth and one will not "out-do" it's neighbor, robbing it of growth potential.
.......and, a close up of one of the little fellows with two true leaves. (The other two are really cotyledon leaves and not true leaves, and will shed off and not really contribute to growth and yield after the first few days.
With some regular rainfall and warm sunshine this field will develop rapidly, and well, and we'll watch as it grows toward maturity. Deer will be moving in now, and eating around the edges of the field. I may put up some scarecrows if they get too bad. If the deer damage is restricted to the edges it won't hurt things much, if at all, as the doves really don't like setting down too near the edges anyway.
Rains forecast for this afternoon and this evening. Hope they materialize.
All my best, Stan
