Tuesday, April 9: Germination experiment

We started a little experiment this week!

Amy designed an experiment that would show us all the things she's been telling us about the best way to plant and germinate seeds indoors for transplanting. Each cross-section of the trays are planted with the same variety of yellow tomato, the Golden Ray. Two of each tray have a soil-less planting mix (A) and the other two have the compost soil mix (B) that we've been using for all the soil blocking. Each of the three separate trays will be placed in locations that receive varying amounts of light.

This is posted on the bulletin board so we remember how we set up the experiment!

This will allow us to see the effects of both soil quality and light on the germination of seeds of the same plant variety. We'll be able to observe the results over the coming weeks. Cool, huh?

April 1 and 2: Soil samples

On our first work days, one of the things we did was gather soil samples from four different areas around Harvest of Joy.

 These included the area near the hoophouse that was a garden before a field, a field with good soils that has been under cultivation ~3 years, a sandy area planted last year with poor results, and a new area to be planted this year down by the river.

Soil was gathered from different spots in each location and aggregated to give us a representative sample of the soil in the field. These will be sent off to the MSU Soil and Plant Nutrient Laboratory for soil testing, which will give us a detailed break down of the type of soil and nutrients present. (http://www.psm.msu.edu/SPNL/)

We also did a little experiment of our own right there on the porch!

Adding about 16 oz of soil and a full jar of water, we were able to see the layers of soil-- from clay to silt-- and their different colors. They told us a lot about the soil composition and looked beautiful too!