Buckwheat Experiment Analysis

In the end, as I guessed the seeds that were buried under the soil did the best. Although it took them an extra day or so to sprout above the surface, they were by far the healthiest sprouts out of the bunch. The seeds that were placed in the dirt that was tilled a bit were middle of the pack, Some were fine while others' roots went above soil, giving them a harder time. Finally, the seeds that were pressed directly into the soil did the worst. When they began to sprout the roots stayed above the soil, and in some cases went over an inch without dropping down into the soil. This made the sprouts lean over quite significantly, and definitely harmed them, most likely by drying them out and not having a strong base. I'm glad I did this experiment, because now I finally know that when I plant my buckwheat in a month or so, They should be buried at least a good centimeter below the surface when spreading seed.

Buckwheat Update #2

So now that I'm on spring break I finally have found time to post an update on the Buckwheat. Here is what it looked like a few days ago.

How to start seeds

New Antarctic Invader

http://news.discovery.com/earth/invasives-across-antarctica-120305.html

The Grandfather of trees

The Baobab tree or "The tree of life" is a species of tree in Africa and Australia that can live for thousands of years. This one is over 3000 years old. It has a diameter of around 45ft. and stores 30,000 gallons of water. Baobabs are called the tree of life because they can provide food water and shelter to human and animal alike.This tree is located in in Duiwelskloof, South Africa.

More on Cover Crops

Why Buckwheat?

Most of you probably are wondering why I'm growing Buckwheat. I realize that growing flowers or vegetables in a dorm room is probably the sexier choice, but I wanted to go a bit out of the box. Buckwheat falls under the category of plants known as cover crops. Cover crops, or green manure, are plants that are purposely grown for enhancing your soil by providing organic matter when tilled into the ground. They may not look attractive, or directly produce any fruit, but they are almost like spreading manure over your whole field, without needing to use a shovel, or a gas mask for that matter. Cover crops also help to lessen erosion, and decrease the affect of rain on the garden by slowing the runoff of water, and they suppress the growth of weeds. Besides buckwheat, other cover crops are oats, sweet clover, white clover, annual ryegrass, winter rye, winter wheat, hairy vetch among others. All of these are grown in different times of the year and serve different purposes. Buckwheat is a summer cover crop.

Buckwheat Update #1

So late last night, I'm talking 2am late, I finally planted the buckwheat seeds. Because I'm doing this in a dorm room, space is quite an issue. I purchased two window sill planters that were meant to be herb gardens. Soaking the peat moss they came with ended up being tougher than one would imagine, peat moss is really hydrophobic at first, so of course it spilled all over the bathroom floor. Once the planters were  thoroughly soaked I planted the seeds. In one full planted I buried all the seeds at least beneath the soil about the width of the seeds. For the next planter, I divided it into two halves, one for seeds to be just spread on top and pressed into the soil, and the other for the seeds to be spread on top after really loosening and tilling the soil up nicely and then pressing them into the soil. I have looked everywhere on the web trying to find out how exactly to plant buckwheat seeds and couldn't find too much info. So, I decided to try it out for myself. Look for updates in a few days when they begin to sprout... hopefully.

FLY TRAPS!

The Venus fly trap, whose natural habitat is in the bogs of the Carolinas, developed its "jaws" to catch small insects for extra essential nutrients not available to it in the swamp. I have always wanted to try my hand at keeping this unique plant. Today is my lucky day.

Brazilian rainforest

I saw this photo and had to share...

Every day 214,000 acres of rainforest are destroyed.

Exams...

field of buckwheat

I haven't gotten around to actually performing the buckwheat experiment yet, I have to study for a math exam! Hopefully by Friday I'll have an update! But while you wait, here is a photo of what I hope to get at the end of experiment.