This semester I have had the privilege to work with a distinguished colleague, Nepeta Cataria. Nepeta has worked with us this semester on the Howdy! Farm, helping out when she gets time and providing her expertise. We all appreciate her taking the time out of her busy schedule to help us out and teach us all a little more about horticulture. Here are a few things she has taught us during her time here: 1. Proper inspection of young vegetables for pests and diseases.
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Understandable. I'm not sure I would be dedicated enough to do that personally, but it is a nice sentiment.
As I said in a previous post, please please please do not eat any plant you find outside unless you are positive that you know what it is and that it has not been treated with any dangerous chemicals. In this post, I'll discuss a few common plants I see everywhere on campus that are highly poisonous.
Fair enough.
It didn't taste like a diaper though... or did it? I have yet to taste diaper. I took it home for further testing. The Cyperus genus is known for one of its most famous members, Cyperus papyrus, the plant used in antiquity to make papyrus paper. C. papyrus (also known as papyrus sedge), is an aquatic plant native to Africa, and is the source of one of the first types of paper ever made. The Egyptians used it for many different things, but the most famous one we typically think of is papyrus.
Nobody heard them coming. Their wings ripping through the air, they struck in the dead of night when the world was asleep. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters. All perished; none were safe, save those who heard the screams of their kin and scrambled away in time. Brief flashes of red and black and the sound of wings slicing through the night air were the only warnings given to the peaceful inhabitants of the farm moments before being devoured alive.
Now, the survivors must live in fear for their lives, or die a violent death at the hands of these monsters... these voracious killing machines... these... these...
The problem arose from the fact that for a while after the nutrients are mixed into the water, the solution tested very acidic (in the 4-4.5 range) and we over-corrected with our "pH Up" adjuster, attempting to get it to a more neutral pH. What we have now learned is that with these organic nutrients, it can take quite a while of being aerated with the air stones (several days even) for the pH to stabilize; we did not account for this at first. So after trying to get the pH to be more neutral, we would test again a few days later only to discover we had over-corrected the pH and actually put it into an unhealthy, basic range (8.5). I will spare the details, but I am happy to say we have now gotten the pH to a healthy range.
So why does pH matter so much? I briefly mentioned my individual project on the farm in my "About" section as well as in my first blog post, but I thought I'd take some time to describe it in more detail and provide a bit of an introduction to the type of hydroponics I'm doing. I of course could not do this on my own in the 6-8 hours a week I spend there; Corey and the interns have been a big help with setting up the system, giving me ideas, and helping me to check on it. Hydroponics is a broad term that basically means growing plants not in soil, but rather in an inert substrate and a nutrient solution. While good growing practices are always important when growing anything, hydroponics has a tendency to magnify any imbalances or mistakes. Because we must supply the plants with everything they need and there is no soil to hold water or nutrients, there is much less room for error in hydroponics than there is when growing outside in the soil. While hydroponics has many challenges, it has quite a few benefits as well. The reason for hydroponics is to give growers an immense amount of control over what goes into the system, and perhaps more importantly, what does not go into the system. When done right, there can be major increases in yields and growth rates. In theory and with good sanitation practices, nearly all diseases and pests are eliminated, especially soil-borne pathogens and pests. I don't expect us to be that perfect, but I do think we'll see a lot fewer problems with soil-borne issues. Hydroponics systems can range from very complex to very simple, and for this project we're trying a system called deep water culture (DWC). This system is simple, doesn't require a lot of specialized equipment, and is relatively inexpensive to set up. For my project, we are growing heirloom black cherry tomatoes. Each plant has its own five-gallon bucket filled with nutrient solution, with an air stone at the bottom to aerate the water and provide oxygen to the roots. The plants themselves are placed in small plastic pots with slits in them for the roots to grow out of, with hydroton pellets to help anchor and support the plants. These pots are inserted into holes in the lids of each 5 gallon bucket, slightly submerged in the nutrient solution. Below are some pictures of our setup in the greenhouse: We are using an organic nutrient mix to get all the macronutrients (Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) and a little bit of various micronutrients (such as iron); this is the main source of nutrients for the plants. Organic nutrients are very... fragrant. In addition to this mix, we added a small amount of another nutrient mix to supplement the iron, magnesium, and calcium levels.
The tomatoes have been going for over a week and there are no casualties so far. While we have been struggling a bit to get the pH in the right range, the plants look reasonably healthy and will hopefully look even better once we switch out the nutrient solution in a few days. Since we are using organic nutrients, there seems to be a major delay in the response to our pH adjuster. It appears to take a few days for the pH to stabilize, something we did not account for when mixing the nutrients the first time. I'll write more on that in another blog post and go into some more detail on the effects of pH and what we have been doing to adjust it. Thanks for reading! Over the course of this semester, I'll periodically be writing blog posts about my experiences at The Howdy Farm at Texas A&M University. I thought I'd start my first one by briefly explaining what it is and why it is so important for the University. The Howdy Farm is a small organic farm located right up against the horticulture and forestry science building, with a wide variety of fruits, herbs, and vegetables, as well as different ornamentals. The Howdy Farm sells produce at weekly shop hours throughout the semester, as well as at the farmer's market on Saturdays in downtown Bryan. Being a source of local, organic produce for the area is of course important, but more important is The Howdy Farm's presence as an example of what can be done in our area, a source of beauty, and an invaluable resource for many different horticulture classes. I have now been in 3 classes that directly relied on using the farm, including parts of plant ID classes and the plant propagation class. Whether it be the lab for Dr. Arnold's landscape plant classes or using buds and cuttings for the plant propagation lab, Howdy Farm is a great help for various horticulture classes and I am happy to get to be a bigger part of it this semester. Overall, outside of producing fruits and vegetables, the farm serves as an example and an experiment ground to show on a small scale how an immense diversity of crops can succeed in our area. Through my blogs and my work on the farm, I hope to help bring some of that to light and to learn as much as I can through my work on the farm as well as my individual hydroponics project in the greenhouse. With that said, I'll explain the title of this post. I of course mean no offense to potatoes. I accept all potatoes; if you are a potato reading this, it's okay. I accept you. At the beginning of February, we planted potatoes. Potatoes are a bit different from many of the other popular vegetables we grow in that we do not typically plant them from seed; we plant them by cutting the tubers into sections, each with at least one "eye." It's best to plant them very deep, up to a foot deep even. While we were working in the greenhouse, Corey, the farm manager, mentioned to Sarah (another intern) and I that he wanted to make sure we got our "potato time" in and got to help plant some of them. Thanks Corey. I had not personally planted potatoes before, though I grew up with a neighbor who did plant them. I would help him dig them up sometimes and thought it was the coolest thing ever seeing so many potatoes come out of the ground, but I didn't realize how much work it takes to sit there and dig that deep of a hole for every single plant. Needless to say, I was glad when we finished our part of the planting. I owe my neighbor a thank you; that's for sure. |
Yes. All of the titles that have quotes are direct quotes I heard during my Howdy! Farm internship.
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