Democratic experimentation: 2013

[Mark]

There was an April 2012 posting by John Bach - the meat of which can be downloaded here. That arrived about the same time that Maria Thun died and at about the same time that Brian Keats visited the UK on his way to observe the Aurora Borealis. Brian and I met and then contacted Sherry Wildfeuer and Nick Kollerstrom to see if we could not offer recommendations (like I have been forging myself for several years) to increase the possibility of great contrasts in crop yields.

The result of this is that Brian worked out some dates, Sherry and Nick were content and I have offered the collation option through Considera at the data submission portal. I really hope that people will feel moved to join in these experiments in honour of Frau Thun.

[Mark]

One of the US experimenters who will join in the 2013 experiment has spotted that the spreadsheet I have been offering for many years to submit data has a glitch. Thanks Pam.

I have replaced the file now but if you want to download the newer and less glitchy version you can get it here.

[dcxley]

Mark, many thanks for your efforts. This is a great idea.

We prepared our plot yesterday ready for the April planting. We have a small suburban back yard, so just keeping our experiment to a small-scale.

[Mark]

Thanks for joining in. I think we will have collaborators from across the globe and that is most encouraging.

[Mark]

So yesterday, in SW UK, I prepared the bed and planted beans, broccoli, lettuce and carrots. I'll do the same over the next few days. For more details the reference is http://www.considera.org/2013planting.html. It's a simple garden plot and I'm just hoping that the cats leave the lovely soft soil alone!

[Mark]

Some relevant correspondence:

Hello there,
I don't know if you have finished your data and all, but I wanted to let you know that 2 studies were done here
in Viroqua, WI USA. I did one and I helped a Waldorf 5th grade class do one.

We both used Rainbow Gardens potting soil which was mixed by an amish farmer using BD prepped compost as well as other nutrititional goodies. We both planted in pots (one pot per day each) The weather had been quite cool, 40's ferenheit in the day.

I planted both pots with 10 zaita radish seeds, first on april 23 at 5pm central time and also on april 25 5pm. I had similar germination, but the first radish had much nicer form... the second batch were not nice and round.

The class planted 1/2 package of cherry belle radishes per pot (all the pots were 10" diameter ones) before noon on each of the days sited above. They were quite thick, but the class noted that the second batch did not germinate as well.
That's pretty much all I can tell you...

Keep up the good work!

Stay well,
Arwyn W