Nisha's Blog
First Blog: Not What You’d Expect
So far, I’ve only spent two days on the Stanford Community Farm, (I had a late start due to a family vacation) but my time spent has completely changed me. Stepping onto the farm terrain on June 25, 2014, with little sleep as I had returned from a long flight only a bit earlier that morning, I was extremely surprised by what I saw. I saw rows and rows of different vegetables and fruits. Being a vegetarian, this excited me as I love fruits and vegetables! When I began the day, I knew nothing about farm work, was not a fan of insects—especially bees and spiders, and didn’t really like getting dirty. So the first day was obviously a bit of a shocker for me.
I began my first day by harvesting sunflowers, a huge hotspot for bees! As I reached my hand in to cut a sunflower from its long stem, I was startled by a multitude of bees. Everyone seemed to be going about with no problem, so I realized that I had to do this and had to get over my fear. I reached in and snipped it off and was surprised to find that I was safe! Next, we moved on to harvesting the zucchini and checking other vegetables and fruits too see if they were ready for picking. Our supervisor, Erin, taught us how to tell whether or not a vegetable or fruit is ready for harvesting throughout the day. For example, when a watermelon has a yellow-brown spot at the top, it is ready for harvesting. As the day moved on, we weeded several of the vegetable beds. Erin informed us that weeds spring up when places are being overwatered. After weeding a new bed, we planted artichokes. We dug small holes, carefully making sure that each hole was underneath an emitter in the drip-tape pipes (emitters are the holes in the pipes that allow water to drip out onto the plant) and placed 1 artichoke plant in each hole. Then we watered them and left them to the day’s scorching sunlight. Next, we learned about irrigation.
The irrigation used in the farm is called drip-tape irrigation (a picture of the drip tape next to plants is shown). The advantage of this type of irrigation is that it saves water by targeting each plant more directly—each plant is directly underneath an emitter. The disadvantages are that buying drip-tape can be quite costly and that drip-tape creates a lot of plastic waste in landfills. Recently, efforts have been made to start recycling drip-tape, however. We learned how to correct breaches in the drip-tape as well. For example, if there is a hole in the tape, it can be corrected using a coupler (a picture of a black coupler is shown). You can cut the damaged section of the drip-tape out and replace it by inserting a coupler. The coupler will connect the two ends of the newly-cut drip-tape to allow continued water flow. There are several other irrigation tools that can be used to make repairs as well.
http://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/DIY-Sealing-a-rip-in-drip-tubing-s/6550.htm
On my first day, I also attended a GIS session for interns on campus. In the session, I learned how to use Google Earth, a tool I had never utilized before. We learned how to use all of the functions of the program, including marking locations on the map, making pathways between certain destinations, and adding media to marked locations as well. We learned about the importance of GIS in our lives. GIS workers make numerous maps that can target the locations of places or things in a timely manner, such as where a hospital might be, and provide an overall display of where things are. GIS can be used to show earthquakes and fires, for example. The included map is an example of a GIS map that identifies solar radiation intensities across the United States.
My second day on the farm, Thursday, June 26, was a lot more relaxed. Our supervisor made us pizza in the clay oven, and we collected different vegetables from the garden, such as kale, basil, and zucchini, to put on the pizza. We did some more weeding as well. On my way home, I picked some garlic, strawberries, plums, and tomatoes. Next week we will be starting the research project with Corey. I’m not sure what it is about yet, but it has something to do with sediments! Just two days on the farm has completely changed my outlook on farm work.
Second Blog
So much has happened at the farm! To start off, we began Corey’s research project called the Searsville Sediment Experiment. The project idea comes from Searsville Lake at Jasper Ridge, a biological preserve owned by Stanford in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The lake has been filling up with sediment and is now 90% filled with sediment. Corey’s project is looking to see whether this sediment can be used agriculturally to grow plants. At the farm, we made a variety of soil mixtures. Mixtures included horse manure, compost (made at the farm), sediment from the lake, and dirt from the farm in different ratios. Some of the mixtures we made were 100% sediment, 50% horse manure/50% sediment, and 66% sediment/33% compost. Then, we transplanted 45 basil plants into individual pots, each with a different soil mixture. There were 9 types of soil mixtures—so 5 plants for each soil type. Then, we put the plants in a random order in a special section of the farm and watered them. The next day we made a drip-tape irrigation system using a thin drip-tape. We connected the drip-tape to the main water line and inserted emitters in the drip-tape above each pot. Then we covered the plants with a white tarp. Every week we measure the length, count the leaves, and note any observations we have for each plant. So far the basil plants have been growing, but we haven’t had enough time to notice any major discrepancies between the different plant groups (each group is defined by its type of soil mixture).
Aside from the project, we’ve been doing a lot of work on the farm. We’ve cleared rows of buckwheat plants and planted flower seeds in their place. We’ve constructed wooden trellis structures around the tomato plants and tied strings from the trellis hooks to encourage the tomato plants to grow upwards along the strings rather than sideways. We’ve done a lot more weeding, of course. We’ve added chicken poop to our compost pile to give it some more nitrogen. We’ve also given it a more defined square shape in hopes of helping its temperature raise rather than stay stagnant as it has been. We’ve made new pathways between the rows of plants. Around the potato plants, we shoveled piles of compost soil to make mounds around them. Erin said that this will help them grow properly. We were also finally able to harvest the big watermelon! Of course, we’ve continued to harvest the produce of the ever-growing sunflower, zucchini, and squash patches on the farm. We’ve also been able to harvest a few chilis and many of the tomatinos. Some of the tomatoes are finally turning red as well! One of the chickens on the far had been escaping the pen every day and coming back at random times. Johnny, another Stanford student working at the farm, figured out how it was escaping and fixed the problem. He also followed it to its hiding place and found 12 eggs! I guess our daily chicken hunts will be over now. We’ve also inserted stakes near the black-eyed peas that we planted so that in the future when they grow bigger we can start twisting them around the stakes. Erin also taught us how to make our own pizzas for pizza Thursday! We’ve been cooking quesadillas and pasta and several other fun dishes too during breaks with all of the fresh farm vegetables. I can’t believe it’s already been 5 weeks!
Third Blog
I can’t believe 8 weeks have already passed. I’m really going to miss the farm and the internship program as a whole. In the last few weeks, we started to analyze trends in our basil plants. We have collected 5 weeks of data and found that so far that the plants in the 50% sediment and 50% horse manure have been doing the best. We also observed several insect bites, brown spots, and yellowing of the leaves on most plants. We also conducted a soil test and found that the sediment contained very little lead and other harmful substances. The soil test is used to measure different substances in soil such as carbon and nitrogen. We also conducted a pH test and found that the horse manure, sediment, farm soil, and compost all had pH levels over 7.0. The ideal pH level for plants is between 5.5 and 5.7, so all of the soils that we used had pH levels that were too high. This can be a factor that may cause problems for the plants in the future and requires more investigation. Meanwhile, on the farm, we completed another tomato tie and began wrapping the black-eyed peas around the stakes that we put in. The tomatoes have finally started ripening, so we have been able to eat delicious red tomatoes every day for lunch. We also planted more sunflowers and started clearing some more beds. We also did some amarin seed saving by simply rubbing our fingers through them to allow the small black seeds to fall into our palms. We also did tomato seed saving by cutting open tomatoes, removing their seeds, and putting the seeds into jars filled with water. Each day, we skimmed off the tomato pulp and whatever else floated to the top and refilled the jars with water. Once nothing but the tomato seeds were left, we dried them and stored them away. We also took a trip to UC Santa Cruz! There we made plant cuttings by cutting underneath the nodes of some plants. When we returned to the Stanford farm, we put our plants in a special type of perforated rock soil to allow the roots to regrow. After the roots regrow, the plants can be planted straight into the ground and grown again! The farm goodbyes were sad, but we’ll be back to say goodbye to the old farm and hello to the new farm in a few months! I’m going to miss the pizza and other goodies that we cooked up!
