Field update...FINALLY!!!

Hello y’all!

Happy New Year!

Thank you for your patience! I know you’ve all been waiting for an update from the field. It’s been an incredibly busy month, the busiest month of the year by far and I’m delighted to let you know that the experiment has been set up successfully! I have set up 20, 2 x 2 m plots in Black River Gorges National Park. There are 2 controls: unweeded plots where strawberry guava hasn't been removed, and weeded plots, both without biochar. There are also 2 treatments: 25 ton/ha and 50 ton/ha biochar applied to weeded plots. I have taken the initial set of measurements today and will measure the growth after 3 months when I’m back from a reforestation internship in Madagascar, and then again 6 months from today. While you wait for the results like I impatiently am, here are some photos of the site and stages of setting up the experiment!

 

A barrel full of coconut biochar made from coconut husks

 

Adding biochar to the treatment plots

 

Preparing seedlings for planting – Existing endemic plants in the plots were also tagged and measured.

 

Seedling in an unweeded control plot – The tagged seedling in the middle is surrounded by dense stands of strawberry guava in the background.

 

Unweeded control plots

 

Weeded control plot

 

Strawberry guava fruiting in the unweeded control plots

 

Biochar plots!

Thank you all for making this project possible and stay tuned for another update when the results are in!