Hiding in the maize once again

Its been two weeks since the last harvest at this site so once again we don our overalls and gloves and dive in amongst the maize looking for those elusive plots to gather samples from. The maize was slightly lighter to carry because it had aged and was drying out, but scratchier and denser. It started off cooler but soon warmed up as the sun came out and there was no breeze coming through. Two and a half hours later we were done and heading back to the shed to start gathering the data needed.

I did have one moment near the end where I was the last in the maize with 3 samples to carry out. Unfortunately I didn't know which way to the path. I figured if I stayed put someone would come to guide me out, which they did. They did wonder why I was taking so long to come out...

One of our team working in the maize ahead.
Can you see the way through?

 With the maize waiting to be found...
(I took the photo)

 

The last samples to be carried out.

Carrot seeds

There are many different varieties of carrot seeds. I now know of Indy Baby, Carson Dice and Namdal Ring. The seeds look different so I assume the carrots will also look different?

How many seeds did I lay out? 3 kinds of carrot seeds, 5 petri dishes for each, and 50 seeds in each dish...

Indu Baby are the smallest

Carson Dice are the biggest

Namdal Ring are in between

How many seeds are there...?

The mighty beetroot...

 

 From the field the samples of beetroot are brought back to the Agronomy shed to processed. Once the roots are cut from the leaves, they are measured (diameter) and weighed individually, then cut up ready to go in the oven to be dried. The dried weight is subtracted from the fresh weight and water content calculated.
The leaves are weighed as a total, then have their leaf area measured, and finally put in a bag to be dried...

the beetroot in all its glory...

the roots

quite a difference in size in each sample

some bigger than the hand and some as small as a marble

 

the leaves

its a messy job...

Maize Photos

Setting up

the orange flag marks the plot to harvest from

the sample has to be carried out

Can you see the way out?

weighing the sample

A 'selfie' just to prove I was here...

loading up the sub-samples to take back for processing

 



 



Counting the emerging plants

As part of an investigation I planted beetroot, onion and carrot seeds in different containers, with each container having a different water content. Each container had 50 seeds so I expected 50 plants to emerge... It's taken a week for any sign of life in the pots. There are lots coming through now and its becoming a bit of a challenge to count. How many plants can you see? Not easy to count is it?

60% water content

80% water content

100% water content

As I discovered there were more than 50 plants growing. So some of the seeds were producing 2 plants.

Interesting...

I checked the onion and carrot pots but they seemed to be growing at a slower rate. And they are easier to count as they are only producing one plant per seed. Can I assume that the amount of water affects the speed of seed germination and plant emergence? I think so...





 

 

The amount of water affects the appearance of the plant. 60%, 80% and 100% in the photos.

The incubator is set at 15deg. Each shelf holds a different rep.

 In each rep there is each kind of seed in each % of WHC.

Another harvest...

5 February

I helped with the carrot and beetroot harvest samples today.  It was very much the same as the last time. The only difference is that I got to use the leaf area machine to measure the total area of the carrot leaves for each sub-sample. Its a clever machine that uses mirrors and electronics to measure each leaf. All i had to do was feed each leaf into the rollers with the stalk first, making sure the leaf moved and didn’t stop. Once the leaves had passed through the machine I recorded the total area, and put the leaf matter into a paper bag ready to go in the oven to be dried. Quite a simple task really!

The carrots are weighed

 

Once the roots are cut off the total leaf area is measured

The leaves go in...

The leaves come out...

 The leaf matter is dried in huge ovens

 

Maize harvest

27 January

Today we were collecting samples of the maize harvest at Clive. I was advised to wear overalls today. Glad I did, as it was big, dense and scratchy. Also pleased I was wearing sunglasses, as sometimes it was difficult to keep the maize leaves away from the face when you were carrying equipment to the next plot. Issy, Christina and I were in charge of weighing, and collecting a sub-sample. Nathan and Matt cut the samples. Rather than carry the samples to the track, we measured at the plots and then carried the samples (less sub-sample) about 8 rows over (past the plot area) to rot back into the ground. It was a cooler day but harder to get through the maize.

Back at the shed each sub-sample was mulched (have a new mulcher now!) and a smaller sample taken to dry. Should have kept the overalls on!  Must watch to see what the others do, if they keep something on, do the same, because they know what’s coming up!