Research

The RHS Research Methods course is responsible for much of the background research that is making this prairie restoration possible! On this page, we will be sharing our journey!

Plant Selection

To determine which seeds to plant, we first had to discover what type of soil our prairie plot contained. We performed an analysis of soil samples from throughout the plot. In order to do this we developed the following procedure:

- Obtained soil sampled systematically from each quadrant of the prairie (as separated by the path-per the diagram to the right-->).
- Equal amounts of each soil sample were placed into straight-sided jars and combined with a tablespoon of powdered detergent. Each jar was then filled to the top and sealed with a lid.
- Jars were shaken for three minutes to thoroughly combine the soap, soil, and water, (making sure no soil was stuck to the bottom or sides of the jar)
- Sediment was then allowed so settle for 24 hours and the sediment layers were analyzed

Our findings: In our 17 samples,

1 sample was classified as sand

3 samples were classified as loamy sand

13 samples were classified as sandy loam

Based on our results, we have concluded that our prairie will likely naturally mimic a dolomite prairie. After doing some research to determine which plants would be best suited for our prairie plot, we decided on the following plants as the main species to introduce to our site:

Wild Quinine
Wild Indigo
Purple Coneflower
Coreopsis
Prairie Dock
Compass plant
Indian grass
Yellow Coneflower
Rattlesnake Master
Big Blue Stem
Bee Balm
Side-oats Grama
Wild Hyacinth
Butterfly Milkweed
Common Milkweed
Ironweed

Seed Preparation

While many of our seeds will be supplied by a company, some seeds have been collected from existing prairies. All of the seeds will be mixed together, which will increase the genetic variation in the plot. This is beneficial for the health of the habitat. For the seeds that have been collected, we need to process the seeds in a particular way to ensure that they will germinate when we plant them either in the greenhouse or directly in the prairie. This processing allows the seeds to break through their seed coats in order to germinate and is called stratification.

Different types of seeds require different types of stratification. We researched the seeds that we have and began to set up the proper stratification procedures. Some require cold, moist stratification, while others simply require a period of cold temperatures but need to remain dry.

As we prepare the seeds, we are taking pictures of each type of seed to gather descriptive data on each species. We are taking some of the images from a height of about 8 inches and including a ruler for scale, while additional images are taken with a 20x magnifying lens that is allowing us to observe finer details of the seeds. Stay tuned!

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