BERTIE 2002

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		29 July 2002 (1266 day degrees since sowing)
	Click for larger image	BERTIE is being prickled! He is growing in a patch of creeping thistles (Cirsium arvense) which are growing as rapidly as he is and closing in from all sides. Ordinarily our farm staff would apply a herbicide to control the thistles but, because Bertie is next door to a herbicide trial, they are reluctant to do that in this instance. Bertie says it's very uncomfortable and, to know what it feels like, imagine a human sharing a small room with a family of porcupines!! The weather has been hot in recent days and the temperature exceeded 30 deg C at the weekend. Many of BERTIE's neighbours are wilting in the heat and some of their leaves are being scorched by the hot ground. BERTIE has at least escaped this fate
		22 July 2002 (1145 day degrees since sowing)
	BERTIE has been sprayed with a fungicide to aid his protection against powdery mildew. Powdery mildew appears as a grey mould on the crop in July-October, starting first on the outer leaves; it occurs most commonly in East Anglia.		Click for larger image
		17 July 2002 (1069 day degrees since sowing)
	Click for larger image	This weekend was very sunny and the days were long. Between 13th-15th July BERTIE's field received 80MJ/m2 of solar energy. BERTIE and his neighbours are now intercepting 85-90% of the sunlight, so BERTIE intercepted about 68MJ/m2 over those 3 days. Because the soil is healthy and still holds sufficient water, they will have used this energy to produce about 120g/m2 of dry matter. Of this, about 68g/m2 will have been stored as sucrose in the root. The plant stored on average 22.7g/m2 of sucrose per day. BERTIE is growing at a plant population density of about 9 plants/m2, so each plant stored about 2.5g sucrose per day - producing greater than a level teaspoon (5g) of sugar over the sunny weekend. In the process of converting solar energy to sugar, the plant transpires water. This process is rapid in long, bright hot days, especially if windy. Over the weekend, BERTIE and his neighbours will have transpired the equivalent of a 15mm depth of water. Rainfall during this period was only 0.2mm. Each plant transpired about 555ml of water per day, or about 110 teaspoonfuls. In these weather conditions beet plants store about 4.5g sugar for every 1kg of water transpired.
		8 July 2002 (915 day degrees since sowing)
	Once again, the picture this week was taken during a break between rain showers. BERTIE is looking very healthy - there are still a couple of holes in some of the older leaves from the hail damage. We are still inspecting BERTIE for the presence of aphids.		Click for larger image
		1 July 2002 (870 day degrees since sowing)
	Click for larger image	We have not seen any aphids on BERTIE yet; the rain we have had over the last couple of days is less than ideal for them. This picture was taken between showers - which is why BERTIE looks so healthy! When the soil is wet, there is a greater contrast between the green of the leaves and the brown of the soil, which can give the impression of the plant looking "extra healthy".

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