Ahualoa test updates
Ben Discoe
1. Green beans. I'm still in mid-harvest, and the method isn't as precise as i would like, since there is ambiguity in exactly what size to pick the beans at. There's also a great deal of variability between individual plants, in both the char and control plots, with some plants attacked by cutworms and others taking longer to bear. To summarize, there's no statistical difference between control and char, in the output per plant.
2. Popcorn, four cells: A. control, B. char, C. IMO, D. char+IMO. They are all still growing, just starting to tassel and ear. Qualitatively, the control looks small and weak, all three others are growing better. It will remain till harvest to get a quantitative result.
3. Sweet potatoes. This one is easy to see qualitatively:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3g_q5uWnR8pn0LL1OTldwA?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zM_i_-vyJn6b04fabIiiHw?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Gng_ZBAQdhZq7bD34idWMg?feat=directlink
There are two mounds, one control, one with char+IMO. The char bed has visibly larger vines, larger leaves, and darker leaves. I wish i had room to do separate char vs. IMO beds, so that we can resolve whether it's the char, the IMO, or some synergy that's producing the good results. The two mounds are grown together somewhat (as sweet potatoes do), the char mound is invading and overpowering the control.
4. Taro. I planted another two cells of taro (control/char) so now there is duplication. The first cells are both growing very strongly, which is likely related to the abundant rainfall since they were planted.
-Ben