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| Evening, looking up-Creek from Walter's |
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| Tomato-leaf guttation |
“Those tiny drops of water that hang from the gracefully drooping tips of leaves are neither tears nor a sign of illness. They are a part of the plant process called transpiration, which is, in turn, part of the hydrologic cycle, the water cycle that supports all life on Earth. When the water drops form, the plant has more water than it needs to stay healthy."
Sounds believable. And partly so because it is partly right.
A bit more specifically, the water droplets are seen on the edge of many plant leaves in the morning (and sometimes confused with dew) because of a beautiful process with an ugly name: guttation. This is different from transpiration which occurs when carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water pass through the stomata openings, generally on the lower surface of leaves and almost always during the daytime. But during the night when transpiration closes down, water pressure—or root pressure—from water being drawn up through roots in a moist environment, pushes fluid up the plant and out of hydathode openings near the margins of the leaves. Guttation is prone to occur when the nighttime temperatures drop, when the humidity remains high, and when soil conditions are relatively warm and wet.
Transpiration during the day occurs as water evaporates through the stomata and each drop, as it were, pulls the drop behind it, forming an unbroken line of water molecules from root to highest leaf. Against gravity, and through the process of cohesion and tension, water is being lifted even hundreds of feet high. But this transpirational pull isn’t happening during the nighttime when conditions are not conducive to evaporation. And that’s when guttation plays in.
And here’s an interesting and possibly sad bit of related information, summarized in an abstract from the Journal of Economic Entomology, October 2009:
“Translocation of neonicotinoid insecticides from coated seeds to seedling guttation drops: a novel way of intoxication for bees.”
Girolami V1, Mazzon L, Squartini A, Mori N, Marzaro M, Di Bernardo A, Greatti M, Giorio C, Tapparo A.
Abstract
The death of honey bees, Apis mellifera L., and the consequent colony collapse disorder causes major losses in agriculture and plant pollination worldwide. The phenomenon showed increasing rates in the past years, although its causes are still awaiting a clear answer. Although neonicotinoid systemic insecticides used for seed coating of agricultural crops were suspected as possible reason, studies so far have not shown the existence of unquestionable sources capable of delivering directly intoxicating doses in the fields. Guttation is a natural plant phenomenon causing the excretion of xylem fluid at leaf margins. Here, we show that leaf guttation drops of all the corn plants germinated from neonicotinoid-coated seeds contained amounts of insecticide constantly higher than 10 mg/l, with maxima up to 100 mg/l for thiamethoxam and clothianidin, and up to 200 mg/l for imidacloprid. The concentration of neonicotinoids in guttation drops can be near those of active ingredients commonly applied in field sprays for pest control, or even higher. When bees consume guttation drops, collected from plants grown from neonicotinoid-coated seeds, they encounter death within few minutes.
So it goes.
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| Scrappy little greenhouse that it is |
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| Sweet peas, egg plant, tomatoes, dill, etc. |
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| Keeping sweet potatoes alive till warmer weather |
As for the guts of chicken butchering, here are a couple video clips that feature Joel Salatin and Alton Brown, two of my highest ranked food heroes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJfENDwVo2E (for killing and preparing the bird for the freezer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ9OLPC-dkE (for cutting up the bird)
These guys are not me. I’m the rusty hoe blade compare to their keen edge. But I still eat well.
And this evening we cut up the seven broilers using Alton Brown’s technique, and the results were smooth and efficient.
Yesterday we butchered the chickens under the Big Oak and in the smoke of its dead limbs.
