We had to plant four spinach seeds in four different types
of soil medium:
1.
C1 : Sand
2.
T1 : 50% compost and 50% Sand
3.
T3 : 100% worm compost
4.
T4 : Sand with worm tea ONLY given once
Procedure for pot trail planting:
1.
Determine soil texture by following the texture
feel test
2.
Fill two 200ml pot with soil
3.
Soak soil by adding water to soil until
saturated
4.
Sow seeds at 1cm depth (4 seeds per pot)
5.
Add 5g tea extract fertiliser to ONLY 1 pot.
Unfertilised pot will serve as control
6.
Place pots in sunny conditions
7.
Be sure to keep soil moist
8.
Monitor emergence of seedlings and growth
For this procedure we need to monitor our plants for 10
weeks during this period we need to record the plant growth, soil changes and
plant leaf changes for example: blotches, deformations and insects etc. After
10 weeks we need to write a report and present this to the class in our
practical groups. The aim of this project is to ensure that we are able to
identify the nutrient deficiency symptoms, the importance of these elements for
Crop Production, the plant requirements, suitable fertilizer and the symptoms
of toxicity.
For the second part of the practical we needed to conduct
the following procedure to determine the
Exchangeable cations (EC) and pH of the four soils and worm tea extract:
1.
Sieve and collect sand, 50% sand and 50%
compost, 100% compost and worm tea extract
2.
Add 50ml distilled water to all the mediums
3.
Stir all the mixtures for 3 minutes
4.
Allow to stand for 1 minute
5.
Take the pH and EC reading of the mediums
6.
Measure the pH and EC of the tea extract
This experiment will help us to determine why some soils
have delivered better results (plant growth) compared to another soil. This
could be because of a high Exchangeable Cations or pH. Some plants also prefer
having a slightly acidic soil this will indicate to us if this is true or not.
This experiment also tells a bit more about the soil that we are currently
farming to deliver results in growth.
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