Middlesex County, Ontario | Your eyes see light bouncing off objects. Different colours are different wavelengths of light. Plants are sensitive to the wavelengths of light.
A corn plant by itself in square yard of soil absorbs natural sunlight, light at the brown wavelength (soil), and light at the green wavelength (sunlight reflecting off its own leaves). This corn plant knows its by itself, knows it doesn't need to worry about being shaded etc, and will put all its energy into seed. It will yield excellent.
A corn plant next to a weed on a square yard of soil absorbs natural sunlight, light at the brown wavelength, light at its own green wavelength, and light at the weed's shade of green wavelength. The corn plant "sees" the weed's different shade of green, knows it needs to worry about being shaded etc so puts a lot of its energy into growing tall and less energy into seed. Yield is not good.
Two corn plants emerging at the same time cant see each other because they are the same shade of green. "i guess those are just my leaves I'm seeing, thats my colour." Both plants think they are alone and put maximum energy into seed production. Yield is excellent.
Two corn plants beside each other emerging as little as 12 hours apart are slightly different shades of green, and the plants can actually "see" each other/competition, and will put energy into growing tall etc. Yield is affected. This is why consistent seed depth and even emergence is soooo important.
So basically plants can see if they are alone or not. If they need to compete that takes energy away from seed production.
Edited by WildBuckwheat 10/28/2013 23:14
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Why are weeds bad? ( Serious Question)
