Well, stressed out or not, on the project continues.
I met with Professor Andrew Riseman today to discuss my proposal to do some sprouting trials in the greenhouse at UBC. I want to learn more about planting density, soil type and depth, and other growing criteria about the sprouts, so I will do a bunch of trials to determine the optimum measures. I was a bit nervous going into the meeting with Andrew because he did a big edit on my proposal. That said, I think it was a fair and useful edit. But the meeting today was anything but stressful. I felt a real interest from Andrew, as well as a sense of faith from him that I would do my trials well.
I also met with David Kaplan at the greenhouse to make sure there was space available and got a bit more familiar with the facilities.
I hope to start trials on Monday.
Tomorrow I meet with Mark Bomford at UBC Farm to discuss the sunflower sprout project and how it will fit into the farm.
I think I may change my bench strategy. Instead of doing a two level bench I will just make a larger one level bench. There is a picture of the bench in my March 3 blog. However, the lower bench would actually be several feet lower than it is in that picture – that pictures was just of another design idea in the many stages of infrastructure planning.
Two levels make much more efficient use of space, but the idea of working on the lower level, as well as its proximity to the ground makes me lean towards a larger bench at about a table top level.
I am trialling some seed from Integrity right now and getting interesting results – very similar to the result I got for the Keystone variety (from Manitoba). I also realized today (while in my meeting with Andrew!) that I never knew the germ rate of the seed I sued before. So I may have had a poor germ rate, but happened to plant at the right density. With a higher germ rate my planting may look less dense (the seeds). I can do this trial with the black oil – though their cotyledons are smaller so may not be a good comparison.