Rubus 1 is finished

The Rubus 1 group was crippled on Christmas Eve by slime moulds which drained the nutrients from the soil, withering the leaves and leaving them with blackened stems.  There's nothing I can do within the parameters of the experiment to revive them, but nor do I want to let them die.  For the purposes of the experiment, the Rubus 1 cohort is "dead".  If I keep them in the experiment then they'll die anyway, so it all comes to the same as far as the experiments are concerned.  I'll give them some intensive care, maybe I'll try using a UV lamp to nuke the fungus, but anything I do to correct this will mean they cannot be admitted to the study from this point on.

No other plants moved up a rounding bound over Christmas.

Rosie and Jim go outside, and Rubus 1 developments.

Not the snappiest title, but apt.

  Rosie and Jim have gone out back, onto a structure in my garden known as The Strawbrary.

Rosie in the red pot on the left, Jim in the purple pot on the right.  

The Rubus 1 group meanwhile have gone through a busy few days.  Milo and Fizz are budding in earnest, whilst Jake appears to be dying.  

Rubus 1 cohort

Milo

Fizz

Jake

I'll update the day's measurements after lunch.  

The last meal

All the plants got a treat today in the form of some 4:2:6 in their water.  For Rosie and Jim however, this'll be the last input they get from me.  Tomorrow they'll have to face December outside.

Ohnoes! Aphids!

This is a quandary.

If I let the aphids proceed then the experiment goes.

If I kill the aphids then I'm intervening in a way that I hadn't planned for.

Should I just get in a ton of ladybirds and let nature take its course?

Answers on a postcard, folks.

On watering

A bit last-minute, but it occurs to me that these experiments need a watering scheme for the indoor plants.  I've already decided on pro re nata - or when the plants need it - but even then there's a decision to be made: PRN per plant, PRN per group, or PRN globally?

I've decided on globally.  That means that when I decide (completely arbitrarily) that enough of the indoor plants need watering then all will be watered.  If too few are in need of water then none shall be watered.  I reckon this approach should strike a balance between taking care of the needs of indoor plants and a perceived need to mimic the behaviour of rain in nature, which doesn't much care about the watering needs of an individual plant.

This will take effect after the fortnight's run-in.  There's no point in abusing the shoots before they've put out roots or else they'll all fail.

Rubus 1, 2 and 3 start today!

All the shoots are potted, fed and measured.  They'll be fed again on the 4th of December, then Rubus 3 will go outdoors on the 5th of December.

They've been measured.  Projection (the length of the shoot from where it leaves the soil to its tip) will be the primary Dependent Variable, or DV.  The DV is my measure of success.  If the projection of plant A increases by more than the projection of plant B then plant A is more successful with regards to the DV of projection.  Other DVs are yellowing (or lack of), shrivelling (or lack of) and budding (or lack of).  The number of buds is less important than whether or not the plant shows a failure to bud, as a failure to bud is a failure to thrive.  Yellowing and shrivelling also suggest a failure to thrive, so the areas affected by these problems are less important than their simple presence or absence.  The only DV which will be measured rather than merely observed will be projection.

Measurements are to be recorded on each of the group pages and together on the Measurements page.

Observations and measurements will be taken every Wednesday until March.  All the indoor plants will receive water pro re nata and subsequent feeds on the 1st of January and the 1st of February.  Also, as I only have so many saucers in my dinner service, I've replaced the saucers under Rubus 1 with plastic saucers from the garden centre.  The same type have gone under Rubus 1 and 2.  Those only involved in Rubus 1 have black saucers, while those involved in Rubus 2 (including Milo and Doodle) have green saucers.