Taking Notes



Exertion: flag leaf to panicle

Being a breeding program, naturally part of the job is to take phenotypic notes on the plants as they grow, everything from days till flowering to how much head smut is found in a plot. As a student worker, I’ve helped take some of the notes, mostly quantitative data, which will then be analyzed later. The majority of the notes that I helped with were of the height and exertion of the plant. Taking the height is as simple as it sounds: we use a height stick with inches to measure several plants within the plot, then take an average. Exertion is measured from the flag leaf to a notch right below the panicle. The exertion, which is also measured in inches, is a bit harder to take, simply because the plants in a plot can vary significantly. The more experienced you get at taking notes, the faster it becomes at judging an average for the plot.

 

This was done for most of the plots in our fields. It’s a very easy process, but with so many plots, it took quite a while to get it all done. What seemed to work the most efficiently was to pair up so that one person actually measured the plants and then shouted out numbers while the other recorded the data.



Head Smut

We also took notes in our fields in Corpus Christi, which I was able to help with. We did the usual height and exertion notes, but we also took notes on the percentage of head smut in the plots. Head smut, like sorghum downy mildew, is a fungus. It attacks the panicle and has a very distinctive look. The fungus forms an enlarged, black, powdery-looking mass, so it’s definitely not hard to tell if a plot is susceptible or resistant. Taking smut notes, like height and exertion, becomes faster as you go along and within two days we were able to take notes on both the fields that we needed to.

Check in soon for my next post. Until next time, thanks and gig ‘em!