Too Much of A Good Thing!
Nninzi village is doing well. In April 2024, some farmers were busy tending to young bean and maize crops. Others had started harvesting the early-ripening coffee beans from the traditional type trees. The big harvest of the so-called cloned coffee types will begin in June.
It has been raining since December 2023. Farmers are happy with the rain and sunshine. So, what else is new?
Today’s morsel has a provocative title. What good thing in Nninzi could be too much? After all, this is rural Uganda, 150 kilometers from Kampala, which we think has all the good things in life!
First, a little science for the ordinary person (saayansi n’omuntu wa bulijjo)! Green plants need light to make food for themselves and us. The scientific name for this process is photosynthesis. Plants utilize light during the day to do so. Under normal circumstances, in the presence of light, plants direct their growth towards the light. However, plants also grow at night, but their growth tends to be vertical, unaffected by the daytime tendency to reach toward the light.
Well! All of the above is what we see everywhere in Nninzi village during the maize growing season. For example, maize planted in October 2023 grew to maturity and was ready for harvest from mid-February 2024, as shown in Figure 1.
Fig. 1: Maize cobs or ears ready for harvesting
The average maize plant was 6 feet tall and had two ears or cobs, as shown in Figure 2. Leaf sheaths wrapped the stem before the node on which the first cob emerged. The stem did not have major root braces arising from the nodes and projecting downwards.
Fig. 2: The usual two-cob arrangement.
The two cobs were, on average, a foot each. They arise on nodes next to each other. Each cob has, on average, six covering bracts.
Plants require some period of darkness to develop properly. Experts say plants should be exposed to light for no more than 16 hours daily. Excessive light is as harmful as too little. When a plant gets too much direct sunlight, the leaves become pale, sometimes burn, turn brown, and die.
Well! Today’s morsel is about the effects of excessive light. We came across three maize plants that got the usual hours of sunlight during the day but also 11 hours of solar light at night. The plants were on the edge of a compound near a solar-powered intense light on a 16-foot pole.
We first noted the plants on January 13, 2024. But they looked like any other maize plants, so we paid no further attention.
However, on January 22, 2024, they had undergone tremendous changes. They didn’t have the expected pale, brown, or burned leaves. They were exuberant and green, with abundant evidence of a productive future. They had grown to extraordinary heights. Figure 3 shows the three plants.
We gave them the local names for maize from left to right: Kasooli, Nalwangu, and Mberenge.
Fig. 3: Kasooli, Nalwangu and Mberenge
Kasooli and Nalwangu were almost equal in height at 7 ft. 7 in., and 8 ft. 3 in., respectively. We could not measure Mberenge’s height at the time as we would have needed a ladder. We didn’t want to disturb anything, so we let the plants be.
Unfortunately, Nalwangu did not put on any cobs. Therefore, we left it out in the subsequent observations of Kasooli and Mberenge.
We noted a few exaggerated features on Kasooli and Mberenge. The cobs on Kasooli and Mberenge were prominent. We endeavored to observe their different features.
Fig. 4: The top parts of Kasooli and Mberenge
First, Kasooli had a single cob on the left of the stem, as shown in Figure 5.
Fig. 5: Kasooli’s one cob. A leaf sheath tied across the bottom marks the cob’s node of origin
Recall that Kasooli’s height was 7 ft. 7 in. The single cob emerged at a node located 3 ft. 8 in., from the ground. The cob was 2 ft. 5 in. That is more than double the average cob length, as shown in Figure 1. However, Kasooli’s cob was flat and thin, unlike the plump ones in Figure 1. In addition, the upper part of the cob had extruded from the top beyond the bracts’ covers to expose maize grains and a mass of old silks or female flower filaments.
Fig. 6: The extruded part of the cob, grains and filaments
The greater height of the Mberenge plant and its position in front of the bottlebrush tree prevented us from taking a closer look at its cob at this stage. We could only see the node of one cob’s emergence, but we could not measure its length.
Fig. 7: Origin node of Mberenge’s cob at the right bottom edge
We can appreciate Mberenge’s towering height from two shots in Figures 8 and 9. We took them from different angles and showed the bottlebrush tree with its beautiful red flowers in bloom in the background.
Fig. 9: The heights of Kasooli, Nalwangu and Mberenge in comparison to the bottlebrush tree.
However, we could then see that Mberenge had two cobs emanating from the same node. In addition, there were the two beautiful bouquet designed by nature! And this is all in Nninzi village! Observe the various shades of the blue sky as well as the green below. What a spectacle!
Fig. 10: The tassels and two cobs bask in the blooming extravagance of the bottlebrush tree.
A month later, on February 26, 2024, a severe thunderstorm uprooted many banana groves. We feared it might have done the same to the maize plants. Fortunately, we were wrong. The three plants stood as tall as before.
We had noted the extreme production and proliferation of brace roots on the nodes below those from which cobs arose, as shown in Figure 11. As their name suggests these roots braced the tall plants anchoring them more firmly in the ground and thus resisted the thunderstorm's gusts of wind.
Fig. 11: Extensive brace roots projecting towards the soil.
However, it must require a great deal of energy to put in place these root structures as shown in Figure 12.
Fig. 12: Note the further branch lets from the brace roots.
We uprooted the plants on March 16, 2024. They had dried up. We were then able to measure Mberenge’s height which we found to be 12 ft. 10 in. This was more than double the average height of the plants shown in Figure 1. It is possible the plant had shrunk a little but we had no way of estimating the degree of such shrinkage.
Fig. 13: Uprooted Kasooli and Mberenge
As noted earlier the plans produced brace roots. Clearly where these reached the ground, they developed the fibrous structure as that of the main roots as shown in Figure 14.
Fig. 14: The complete root and brace roots structures of Kasooli and Mberenge
To underscore the extraordinary height achieved by Mberenge, we staged a more graphic expression. We compared the heights of Farmer Kimbowa, Mberenge, and the solar lamp pole. Their heights were 5ft., 12 ft. 10 in., and 16 ft., respectively. Figure 14 shows the results. You need to look carefully to overcome Farmer Kimbowa's camouflage!
By the way, we have also noted that the nearby banana groves are growing taller and are taking longer to produce inflorescences. On one stool that produced an inflorescence, the flower remained small and upright for nearly two weeks. Usually, an inflorescence takes only a week to bend sideways and then downward.
When we uprooted the plants on March 16, 2024, immense excitement gripped us as we looked forward to handling the cobs to see what was under the bracts.
In Figure 16 on the left is the detached cob from Kasooli measuring 3ft. 4 in. That is an incredible feat for a cob! One can count the 13 bracts covering it. We can also see the extruded part of the cob which had by then dried up. In Figure 17 on the right is the unwrapped cob. Wow!
Fig. 16: The detached cob from Kasooli Figure 17: Inside the bracts – the cob
How about Mberenge’s two cobs? Well! We had underestimated Mberenge’s productive capacity. After uprooting the stem, we saw that as the plant gained greater height it produced shorter nodes. At each of five of these, a cob emerged. Therefore, externally Mberenge showed six cobs.
Fig. 18: Mberenge’s six external cobs.
We asked the household’s matriarch Jjaaja Rita Nandawula to open the bundle of cobs on Mberenge so we could see what was inside each of the six offerings.
Fig. 19: Opening the bundle of cobs on Mberenge
There were altogether 13 cobs, some as small as a finger. The largest was a pair of twin cobs. Of these, one had a long, wilted extruded cob measuring 1 ft. 2in. But it had only three fertilized grains. The second of the twins had several fertilized mature grains but lots of unfertilized grain sacs. The twins were wrapped in 17 bracts. It is noteworthy that a black fungus (bottom right) had already started eating away at the grains. We do not know whether or not the fungus caused the deficient results.
Fig.20: The twin cobs
Below are samples of some of the remaining 11 cobs from the six nodes of Mberenge.
Fig. 21: Three cobs
Fig. 22: A small finger-sized cob wrapped in many bracts.
Fig. 23: Three cobs Fig. 24: Two cobs
Fig. 25: One of the larger undeveloped cobs.
Fig. 26: This cob almost made it to maturity.
Fig. 27: This one never had a chance.
Figure 28 below, shows the final combined harvest from Kasooli and Mberenge. Clearly, too much light was not beneficial to these plants. They worked too hard and perhaps never rested. As we have seen they overproduced brace roots maybe in an effort to suck in enough water and minerals to feed the ever lengthening stem, and brace roots, and bracts.
When it came to producing grains, effort was put towards making as many cobs and bracts as possible. Despite the large male tassels, and bundles of silky female filaments the majority of grains remained unfertilized. Thus grain pockets remained mostly undeveloped and bereft of food.
With excessive light during the day and night our granaries would be mostly empty. Indeed, too much light was too much of a good thing when it comes to growing three maize plants in Nninzi village!!
Fig. 28: The Final Harvest!
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