Finally, Part 2!

The long wait to get to part II of this study is over!  The Broccoli starts that I seeded on July 4 (5-72 cell trays, or ) have sized up nicely and the forecast for a clear/dry few days allowed me to get all 320 starts into the ground.  Single row planting at 18" Spacing made this task a bit easier, but it was still a two day job that took a good amount of time.

Seeding Broccoli Trays 7/4.

Broccoli Plants ready to be transplanted.

Now the Broccoli plants are in, I will still need to keep the rows and beds clear of weeds, but the easy part of simply waiting and watching the broccoli grow is a joy to behold.  I will be re-staking the field so that I can make observations about the growth habits of the plants and compare them based on the treatment area they have been planted in.

Broccoli Plants in!

My study doesn't actually call for additional mulch, but I will be weighing the harvest of the heads once they mature.  Since the variety I chose was Marathon F1, which is supposed to be very tolerant of cold weather conditions.  A calabrese type, this variety will produce a medium sized head and then continue with side shoots (weather permitting).

The Final Frontier

I have finally arrived at the most difficult part of the study: harvesting and the final weeding.

Due to other responsibilities, this part of the study required me to weed and harvest over the course of three weeks.  When it was all over I was glad.

My data, which has yet to be analyzed in accordance with the different treatments yielded the following:

UnWeeded sections (Remember, this were the sections not weeded all summer):

• 1,211 lbs weeds
• 780 minutes labor

Weeded Sections (Weeded once during the summer)

• 640 lbs weeds
• 575 minutes of labor

Of the 960 Red Zeppelin and 960 Patterson Onions, here are the following yields:

Patterson:

• 758 Onions
• 182.58 Pounds

Onions Curing in Wagon.

Red Zeppelin:

• 606 Onions
• 147.28 Pounds

Note the significant difference in the Red Zeppelin and Patterson yields...this, unfortunately was a pure and simple case of poaching. As I harvested the red onions, I clearly saw the depression in the soil of where a big fat onion once was anchored.  (The land I used is leased to other individuals, some of which thought my onion patch was part of a u-pick operation.)  I don't know how this will affect my study at this point, but I am hopeful that there is enough data for the three rows that were not so affected in this way.