My time has been dominated by data collection and final processing of my two summer fir experiments. Today I spent the day working with my flooding experiment. I washed roots and prepared shoots and roots for drying. Even though I stayed late I’m not quite to the halfway point yet. Tomorrow might be a long day.
This afternoon I took some pictures that show firs are not fond of flooding. Take a look at this line up of Canaan firs. You’ll notice the root systems are not as developed on the right side of the picture.
Canaan firs after eight weeks of flooding treatments. Left to right: no flooding, 24hr/weekly, 48hr/weekly, 72hr/weekly.
So all my work right now is collecting data to support this picture.
During the afternoon the control panel by the greenhouse ventilation system registered the temperature around 106 (thankfully that’s Fahrenheit). That reading is taken from high in the greenhouse, so I suspect it was a bit cooler down by the floor. I am thankful that I have a very high tolerance for extreme heat.
Once the sun set the temperatures settled to a freezing 84. It was rather tranquil in the greenhouse. NPR supplied classical music, two lights illuminated the scene.
A late night in the greenhouse.
I finally decided to call it a night when I started mixing up the top of the firs with the bottom. Hours of monotony can do strange things. So I biked home in the dark (Ben Hoover: Bike Ninja).
Now I need to make a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a few supplies for tomorrow (which is nearly today).
My leisure is lacking.
