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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Sunday, February 09, 2025
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Little Ketchup
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Grittyville, WA
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Entry 40 of 56 |
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A couple roots visible in the potting mix control. It has the best roots, followed by the mixed mineral soil that contains the least organics. At first I thought this was random. Now I think there is insufficient oxygen. The rapid warm up plus saturated soil has caused anaerobic conditions. This is a good reminder that if a grower digs a pit for heating cables and adds organics and/or water in addition to the heat its probably easy to create an anaerobic or partially anaerobic zone for a period of time. I've had this problem myself. Its interesting to see this happening here in real time, to see the roots failing to develop as well as they should.
If I had to guess, I would have guessed that the mixed soil tube would have suffered the worst effect, but there was a greater total quantity of partially decomposed organics in close proximity to the pumpkin sprout in the normal-soil-layering tubes. So the oxygen may in fact be more depleted in these less-mixed tubes. Precisely the opposite of what no-till is trying to achieve.
Its not easy to draw direct conclusions, except that disturbances and inputs and changes to the soil should not create anaerobic conditions otherwise the roots will be hindered. And even if the oxygen returns, the soil microbes may be altered for a long time, and the soil ph could change too, and its unclear to me just how long these changes would last. They might last a long time.
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