Showing posts with label decomposition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decomposition. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Decomposition update

As promised, I took the camera to the corn field to record the progress of the decomposition there. As you can see from the photo, things look a little different now than they did at the time of our first decomposition report.

The field was tilled just a few days after our first report, so the stalks have been laying as you see them here for about five months now. Decomposition is a little harder to measure than growth, especially when you can't find the same stalk as the one you looked at the first time. I'm sure there are plenty of good things going on beneath the surface where earthworms are busy making the black dirt even richer. Soon, Farmer Wagenbach will be back in the field planting something that we'll just have to measure.

An unwelcome sign of warm weather is this dandelion sprouting from a seam in the concrete. I don't think we'll measure this pesky plant, but I do anticipate an opportunity to do a Roundup experiment! Thanks for visiting!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Stubble in the backyard, week 1

October 18

Even though the stalks looked pretty dry before harvest, you can see a faint tinge of green in what remains of this one. It should be exciting to see how the stalk stubble of this plant decomposes over the next seven months! Thanks for visiting!