So we have had a warm stretch of weather lately and so it is still nice to get outside and see what is going on at the NCRS. These pics are from last Friday. Field crop harvest is over and all that remains of some of the corn plots is the unharvested plot border rows. This is from Farm 11 where the plots are over a thousand feet long.
I hate to admit that we have a constant battle with compaction. This is because all of our six row plots have numerous trips through all season from planting, sidedress (corn), foliar apps, harvest and grain cart weigh wagon. So we are on a ripping rotation and use cover crops where we can. Here we see Phil operating the ripper on Farm 10.
There is still some of what we call "production corn" out. This is corn that was not part of a replicated plot experiment. Here is Jeff over on Farm 9 trying to finish up.
There are some evaluations taking place in the greenhouse. This is a tomato fertilizer test for greenhouse grown tomato transplants. These are some of the plants kept after the earlier evaluations. On the left is no fertilizer, in the middle is AgroLiquid Grow Right and on the right is a commercially used dry fertilizer (dissolved in water for use). The best treatment is obvious to me.
Over on Farm 5 there is an experiment with rows of emerging winter wheat. The wheat went in a little late this fall as harvest was held up several times due to rain. But with the warm days now it is growing fast.
And here is the high density orchard. See the white trunks? That is a paint that will reflect the intense light that is reflected by snow, that will surely be here sometime in the months ahead. Left unprotected, the trees can develop cracks in the bark. Unfortunately with over 3000 trees in this orchard, there is still a ways to go. But it will get done.
So the 23rd season of research is wrapping up at our North Central Research Station. But don't worry, we saved some more things to test in 2017.
