As the quarter progresses, I am shifting gears from field work, to lab work, written documentation and analysis. On Friday, I joined a zoom call with Marilyn, from WSU extension, for lessons on educational materials. Marilyn shared a variety of helpful resources and examples that have been used to market vegetables and farm shares. Afterwards, the student group met to collaboratively work on our WordPress sites, as well as update each other on our individual work.
Additionally, I was able to pick up materials for the germination chamber trial from the Science Support Center on campus: 20 glass petri dishes, mm. rulers, and filter paper.
Also, I finally got around to planting the extra Solanum aethiopicum varieties at my personal farm-site, in East Olympia. Eggplants were planted 18 inches apart on 07/14/2024 in a high tunnel environment. Interestingly, these eggplant have done remarkably well in their 4 inch pots from the original transplant in spring. I did do a foliar spray with a fish emulsion fertilizer during week 1. Even during multi-day heat waves ≥ 88 °F weather, plants appeared have wilting leaves, yet persisted to fruit and set new growth in the following days, without increased watering.
Also, professor Ben implemented biological control on Friday, July 19, with nematodes. This is a preventative for pest control.
