Keepin Me On My Toes

Yesterday we welcomed three more beautiful kids.  After participating in Bellas birth it was easier for me to see what the early signs of labor are.  So I brought May Daisy, one of our Sable Saanen does, up into her birthing stall late in the morning.  She was looking good and ready.  

I gave her a bit of grain and within a couple of hours she went into labor (about 10 minutes before I had to leave to pick up my son...great timing!).  I had just enough time to watch her birth the first kid (back feet first), dry off the face, and call my neighbor, who once again graciously rushed over. 

When I got back home 40 minutes later, two more healthy kids awaited us.  Three girls!  Way to go May Daisy!  Within an hour she pushed all three out just like that.  Birth is so amazing.  

With no help from us she licked them all dry, chewed off the cords, and ate her placenta while the little ones found her teats.  What a great mamma she is.  Arent they cute how they are up on their feet, ready to explore the world, only a day old.  

This morning when I went to check on May Daisy she had an engorged udder.  It seems the kids were having a hard time latching on to such full teats.  Once I milked her, the kids were able to nurse easily.   (I also gave her some Ibuprofen to help with the inflammation.)  We will milk her several times a day until her swelling goes down and feed the nutrient rich colostrum to the kids.   

This little one below is a tad smaller than the others so she will get some special attention and extra manual feedings.

Whew, this farming business sure does keep you busy.  Looking forward to fresh raw milk once again.  And CHEESE!!!

   

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On The Free Tip

free wooden wine boxes for our CSA

Scavenging has become a way of life for us.  There are so many amazing resources out there people just throw away.  Yes its cliche, one persons trash is anothers treasure...however when you are farming on a shoestring all that "trash" is good as gold.  Perhaps scavenge is not the right word; what we do is more like salvage or glean.  Besides livestock feed, almost all our resources are free.  

leftover Chinese broccoli and bok choy starts from a community garden

From fencing off craigslist, organic seeds from the seed library, wine boxes and pallets for seed flats, straw bales for animal bedding and mulch, vegi starts from the garden club, bamboo cuttings as supplementary feed, truck loads of horse manure from the stables up the street, truck loads of wood mulch from the neighborhood tree trimmer, to more truck loads of pumpkins after Halloween to feed the livestock.  I could go on and on, its all about the FREE stuff.  

timber bamboo cut down by a neighbor, we used to build a trellis for squash

But whats best about all this is that most of these are things we actually need and some are just fun to have or useful materials for our creative endeavors.  We save tons of money recycling and reusing.  The downside?  Sometimes we wait to get that item we really need/want.  (Which makes us think twice about how badly we really need it!)  Or once in a while we bring home something that takes up space until its perfect use is discovered.  

old straw bales we use for animal bedding and mulch

And the upside is that we have the ability to create our farm life with stuff we find while we make choices to spend our hard earned money on other things (or save it!)  Not to mention we can tread lightly as consumers while focusing on producing more of what we need.  It really is a win/win situation.  

van full of left over pumpkins, day after Halloween

What kinds of free stuff do you re-purpose out there?

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Nica Impact featured on i 61 newsletter

Heres a link to i-61s newsletter featuring Nica Impact.

http://i-61.org/building-bridges/

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Endlers guppy

The kids have been bugging me to get fish for some time.  I have wanted to get some fish, but have nowhere to put them.  I have also thought of doing a simple aquaponics set up, but that is a different type of fish altogether and the kids would most likely not be allowed to go near this. 

Then our pet turtle died, we had him since before the kids were born.  I dont know what went wrong.  The kids and I were upset.  We miss out turtle friend.

A few days later we happened to be going to Orange for something so I decided to get some fish as a surprise for the kids.  I considered getting gold fish as they are hardy and indestructible, but they are also very messy, and they do not breed easily in a tank.  I decided to get something that would breed without much work on my part, something like a guppy. 

Some of my fish - the guppy hybrids.  You cannot see the true deep colours in the pictures

I have liked guppies since I was a child, but a few years ago I learned about a fish called an Endlers livebearer.  It is uncertain if this is a type of guppy or a different type of fish.  They are prettier, hardier, and all round better than guppies.  I wanted to get some Endlers, but it is unlikely that we would find them out here, and they can be very expensive so if I did find some I did not like my chances of actually buying any.

My fish look similar to these but mine have deeper colours
- picture by Silvana Gericke http://abilo.piranho.de/aquaseite/aqua

I looked online and found someone in Orange who was selling endlers for a good price.  Guppies in town cost about $6 or $7 each, so buying from a private seller worked out a lot cheaper and I ended up with a far larger colony to start with and I got the endler fish that I prefer to guppies.  The fish were all young, and were a mix of male and female endlers as well as endler/guppy hybrids.  They did not look overly great, mostly grey, one male had nice colours so I was happy.  I found out later that when they are stressed they lose colour pretty much immediately, when they had calmed down they looked amazing.  Kind of like a container of beautiful swimming jewels darting around.  When we got home and I put them in the fish tank the males displayed brilliant neon and metallic colours, very different from the dull fish that I picked up two hours ago.

They have had baby fish for us a few times, many of which appear to be surviving to maturity.  It is difficult to count them as the tank is large and has plants and other places for them to hide.  Unfortunately I have too many males, or not enough females, so I have separated all of the non-endler male guppies from the main breeding tank.  In this way the colony will end up as all endlers.  Every baby fish from now will be either an endler or at least 50% endler.  In a few generations if I cull hard I should have all endlers, or at least fish that look very much like endlers and carry a high percentage of ender genes.  It will take some work, especially considering how speedy these little fish are and how difficult they are to catch, but it will be worth it.

Endler/guppy hybrids - poor colouration due to stress

Endlers livebearers (Poecilia wingei) may be a subspecies of guppy, or they may be their own separate species of fish.  There is a lot of scientific debate and controversy over this.  They have been classified as their own species, it is safe to assume that this is partly for conservation purposes.  The fish that I have not culled look like the original ones from the wild, they have not had any selective breeding done in order to change them.  I think that this wild type fish is one of the most beautiful fish around.  People often try to hybridise them with guppies, I feel that this is a mistake as none of the hybrids look as amazing as the wild type fish and de-hybridising them without a lot of work is virtually impossible.

Some culls

Some more culls

 In the wild they lived in Laguna de Patos in Venezuela, they may be extinct in the wild, or they may have crossed with guppies in the wild (essentially becoming extinct in their pure form), or they may have some small remnant populations somewhere.  Many people who have recently caught wild Endlers have fish that are clearly wild guppy Endler hybrids.  Many of the recent expeditions have not turned up any Endlers, and the site they they used to reside is heavily polluted, so it is difficult to know if they still exist in the wild for sure.

The Endlers livebearer was first discovered by Franklyn F Bond in 1937, these fish were then pickled, sent to a museum, filed away safely, and then forgotten about.  In 1975 Professor John Endler rediscovered these amazing little fish, he sent some live fish to a friend who named them after him and introduced them into the aquarium trade.  From there they have spread across the world through aquariums.  In Australia they seem to be rare, probably due to how recently they have been introduced to the country but also because of how easily they hybridise with guppies.

They are a beautiful and lively little fish, the males have vivid metallic colours while the females are plain.  They are very similar to the fancy guppy in a lot of ways.  Many of the modern fancy guppies have some degree of Endler blood in them, and likewise many (if not all) Endlers in Australia have guppy somewhere in their heritage. 

Endlers differ from guppies in a few ways that are noticeable for the average fish keeper:

• They can be smaller than guppies; 
• They have a shorter gestation period than guppies;
• The females are not interested in eating the new born fry, whereas guppy females are notorious fry eaters;
• New born fry seem larger and more agile than newborn guppy fry;
• They do not jump out of the water, unlike guppies who are well known for being suicidal jumpers;
• Their colouring of the males is amazing and unique;
• Females have no real colour;
• They have a slightly different shape to the guppy;
• They prefer water that is more alkaline and harder than guppies;
• They prefer warmer water to the guppy, which is good for me as my tank is outside in a sheltered position and the water temp often exceeds the lethal temp for guppies;
• Males display for the females, rather than harass them;
• They behave more like a wild fish than a pet fish - if you get some endlers you will know what I mean...

I really like these little fish, they are interesting to watch.  They quickly learn that people equate to food and begin to frantically beg wneh they see you, even if they are not hungry.  They seem to be breeding well for us in conditions that are less than ideal and I can only begin to imagine how well they would do in perfectly clear water with stable temperatures and adequate lighting.  If they survive the summer I hope to have enough to be able to sell some, trade some, perhaps keep some in with the water chestnuts during the warmer seasons or even feed some to the poultry.  

Endler male, I would cull him as mine look much nicer than this one - picture by Marrabbio2

I have tried to take pictures of the Endlers and the endler/guppy hybrids but have had no luck.  They are far too speedy for me.  I tried putting some in a jar so that they could not escape the camera but they lost their colour as soon as I caught them and did not colour up again until I put them back in their tank.  Above are some of the best pictures that we took, and they have no real colour compared to the lively little fish as soon as I put them back in the tank.

I have learned a few things about expensive guppies and "pure" endlers from my little tank.  Some of the expensive guppy types are in fact hybrids with endlers, I have had a few Japanese neon blue guppies and a few other noticeable types appear in my tank.  Some of the pure endlers that I see for sale overseas that have been collected from the wild, are in fact hybrids.  I assume that they hybridised naturally prior to being caught by people, but the fact remains that they are not pure endlers.  Again, in my little tank, I have had a few peacock endlers and some other things show up.  Some of these fish are truly beautiful and it would be simple enough to line breed them for a few generations so that I had several exotic types that breed true to type, but I have no interest in them.  The natural beauty of the wild type endlers has captivated me and I am culling hard to remove anything that is not close to a real endler.

At this stage I have no plans on sending live fish through the post, so if you would like to get them from me feel free to contact me through my for sale page but you would have to pick them up. 

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WORKSHOP ON ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE 7th July Nottingham MediCity

"The Learned Society Partnership on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is holding three interdisciplinary networking workshops to bring together researchers, from all career stages, who have an interest in fundamental or translational research relating to the evolution and transmission of AMR.

AMR is a global health threat. A better understanding of how different environments, and their uses, affect the evolution and transmission of resistance is key to tackling AMR. These environments include: animal and human host tissues; hospitals and urban environments; and agricultural and natural settings. The need to understand these ‘real world interactions’ is reflected by Theme 3 of the cross-research council AMR funding initiative.

Multidisciplinary research and knowledge exchange across medicine, the life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, social sciences, agricultural and veterinary sciences will be vital for closing this knowledge gap and translating research into applications to tackle AMR.

Workshops will be held in London, Dundee and Nottingham on the following dates:

• Charles Darwin House, London, Thursday 25 June 2015
• University of Dundee, Friday 3 July 2015
• MediCity, Nottingham, Tuesday 7 July 2015"

I will be at the MediCity ground tomorrow to learn from the speakers and also present my poster entitled:

Discovery of novel small-molecules for the inhibition of Pseudomonas aeruginosa quinolone signalling

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Growth Update

Howdy Folks,


My arugula plants are growing like crazy! I tried to take a picture of the roots growing, but my phone camera is not very good. Its a shame too. The roots are at least 5-8 cm on all of the net pots.

My heirloom tomato is still being a beast! Growing super fast. I hope that I will get some tomatoes form the plant but I am not sure if it will self pollinate or not. But I will find out :) From my reading most tomato plants will self pollinate because they have both male and female parts. Might be different from heirloom tomatoes though. I try to self pollinate the flowers by rubbing my finger on each flower and trying to act like a busy bee, spreading the pollen.

Here is what you came to see. Pics!

The roots are taking off!

The roots will grow and hang in the oxygenated rich water.

Lots of room for more net pots and more veggies!

Tomato plant loving its aquaponic home

Stay tuned for another update soon!

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10 essentials on Ebola

1) Ebola virus disease has a death rate of up to 90%.

2) Ebola first appeared in 1976, simultaneously,  in a village near the Ebola river in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Sudan.

3) Fruit bats are the likely hosts of the Ebola virus.

4) Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with body fluids of infected animals.

5) Contamination from human to human occurs through broken skin or mucous membranes, or through any material that had been in contact with infected body fluids.

6) Men who have recovered from the illness can still spread the virus to their partner through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery.

7) Immunological symptoms of infection include low white blood cell and platelet counts. Biochemical signs of infection are usually elevated liver enzymes.

8) The incubation period is from 2 to 21 days. By incubation read time interval from infection to onset of symptoms.

9) Patients are not contagious during incubation period.

10) There are currently no specific treatment to cure the disease, but to fight dehydration with solutions that contain electrolytes.

Information obtained from Frequently asked questions on Ebola virus disease, World Health Organization, [http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/ebola-faq.pdf], last visited on the 20th of August 2014, last updated on the 8th of July 2014.

Image obtained from unknown source.

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The Plant

The Plant

The other day I visited The Plant in Chicago. It was great to see! There was tons of innovative ideas and a very cool guided tour. The reason I went was to see the aquaponics but it turned out to be much more than that. The Plant serves as a small business incubator. I was knew to the term, but it allows new business to come in with lower start up costs. Each business is a cog in The Plants giant wheel. Everything going on in The Plant works in conjunction with each other. Spent brewers grain gets used for mushroom substrate, CO2 from the Kombucha Tea process gets pumped into the aquaponic rooms to enrich the plants air. These are just two of the many symbiotic relationships the different business have with each other.

The Plant has plans to install an anaerobic digester. This technology will provide the building with Bio Gas. The Bio Gas will provide The Plant with all its electricity and be able to sell some back to the power company at night! It works like a mechanical stomach. The right blend of fatty, oily matter and solid, starchy matter (which The Plant is paid to remove) is combined, and constant slow rotation starts a fermentation process that creates Bio Gas. When the "stomachs" contents are done digesting there are two by-products. The liquid byproduct is sold to farmers as an organic nitrogen fertilizer. The solid byproduct is used as a compost. The property is just over two acres so most of the compost will also be sold.  

Although there is still a little ways to go with construction around the HUGE building, the aquaponics system in the basement is flourishing! The main food production bed and fish tanks can produce a 1/4 ton of veggies and 100 lbs of fish a month!

The main grow bed that produces a 1/4 ton of mixed
greens. Seed to harvest in 30-45ish days.

This is their LED grow bed. They are growing Curly Kale.
Only purple / blue LEDs are used to not waste valuable electricity
on light spectrums the plants do not use. Curly Kale is the
most nutrient leafy greens. Very efficient power to nutrition ratio.  

Producing 100 lbs of fish each month cannot be easy, but this system makes it look like people have been doing it for decades. They have the fish in raised IBC containers so the gravity pumps the water into the grow beds. 

One of many IBC containers used by The Plant. These are
easy to recycle for aquaponic needs. 

Settling tank and minimal mechanical filtration.
Behind, you can see the main grow bed. 

Aquaponic plumbing

                 

Myself, Felix Vogele, at The Plant

I was very impressed with The Plants aquaponics systems. The whole process is about putting as little in as possible and getting as much as possible out. If all goes to plan, I can foresee many replica "plants" in the future.

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Moving to town

Recently we have moved to town.  We had to sell the property for a number of reasons.  I will miss a lot of things about the property but unfortunately selling was the right thing to do at this point in time.  We are now renting a nice house in town.

Moving to town has been difficult, we have had to sell our animals and alpacas and they are sorely missed.  Our daughters were born in our old house and I developed Immali corn and a few other varieties of vegetables there.  It has a lot of memories and moving was far more difficult than I thought it would be.
In our last few days someone stole our firewood and someone else broke into the mud brick house and cut/took the antenna cables (yet didnt steal anything).  We know who did both of these things but unfortunately can do little about it.  That made moving even harder and more emotional.  I have been praying that I can forgive them, yet I find this very difficult.

Babingtons leek flowering after the move

We have also been very lucky, we asked our new landlord if we could keep two guinea pigs and he allowed us to keep them.  This has made the transition far easier for the kids and they often sit outside holding and patting the guinea pigs.  I think guinea pigs are amazing little animals and very under-appreciated pets.  I should write a post on guinea pigs at some point.

We also asked if we could keep some chickens and the landlord graciously agreed.  I truly appreciate being allowed to keep them.  This has been great as we still have eggs.  It has been many years since we have had to buy eggs and I dread the thought of that ever having to buy them again.  I dont have a rooster so will not be hatching any eggs in the immediate future.

Araucana cross and silkie cross chickens

We took our last two sheep to the butcher and they are now in the freezer so we will not have to buy meat for some time.  I doubt we will be growing our own meat here in any way.  Perhaps I will get some quail or be able to set up a small aquaponics system and raise some edible fish when we move next.

This rental house is very nice and the street is pleasantly quiet, but it does not have a vegetable garden.  I dont understand how people grow food without a vegetable garden.  I am at a loss here.  I guess they pay someone else to grow all their food and simply buy it from a supermarket?  That seems odd to me.  There are so many things that I like to eat which I can not get from a store, other vegetables are so much better fresh.  What I would give for even a tiny plot.  They are a bit precious about grass here so I can only grow things in pots which I have to keep on concrete or pavers in fear of damaging the lawn.

Vegetables but no land in which to plant them

The same vegetables from the other end

Duck potatoes, they grow well in a bucket

I dug up some of most types of vegetables/herbs and brought them here with us.  I could not take many of each, just enough to start again.  Some things do well in containers, others do not.  Many plants have died in the move and many more are looking weak.  I hope that we get to move somewhere with a vegetable garden before many more things start to die.

Micro Tomatoes - unfortunately not all survived the move

Chilli seedlings from rare imported seeds

When I get set up somewhere with a vegetable garden I plan to grow and sell vegetables and seeds again.  I miss having a garden.  I may have some Babingtons Leeks and perhaps some other things things for sale soon but cant get too serious or have too many spare plants when growing in pots.  When I do start to sell vegetables again I will list them on my For Sale page.

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Update on Pickled eggs

We have now tasted our pickled eggs. They look oh so pretty.

Verdict:

• The dont taste pickly (yes I think I invented a word but it is the most descriptive) enough.
• The texture of the white pink is oh so very very wrong, almost gag worthy.
• The taste though is fine and the yolk is really yummy.

So far I have tried them in 2 salads.

• Just a regular salad as a side to fish, wont do this again
• In a pasta salad, this I will do again. It seems when eaten with pasta the texture of the egg just blends in and you dont notice yourself eating them. I am sure it add flavour. But it at least adds protein to a summer meal.

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Symposium on Clostridium difficile Antibiotics 2015

Symposium on Clostridium difficile conducted by Glenn S Tillotson PhD, FIDSA, FCCP, FISC, Transcrip Partners LLC, Downingtown, PA
Visiting Distinguished Scientist, PHRI, Newark NJ. Slots for symposium which is a global interest for the upcoming researchers in antibiotic resistance, infection and other experts. Interested can reach them on antibiotics@omicsgroup.com

World Congress and Exhibition on Antibiotics September 14-16, 2015 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 

See more at: 

http://antibiotics.omicsgroup.com/#sthash.GwjnKCpO.dpuf

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The effects of static magnetic fields on seed germination and plant growth

I have heard anecdotal evidence from people who claim exposing seeds to a static magnetic field increases germination rates and makes seeds germinate a lot faster.  I have heard other people claim that exposing seedlings to a magnetic field increases health of young seedlings.  To be honest I had no idea if this was accurate or not.  If this is true then I want to use magnets in germinating some seeds.

I did some research on the internet and found various papers that have been written on the subject, they appear to have conflicting results and many of the tests were often run is sub optimal conditions (often funded by companies that have a conflict of interest) with far too many variables often in completely non-scientific ways that can not be used to provide unbiased results.  Most (ie all) of the people who I know of that have tried this have not included a control, which in my mind is a waste of time.  I often read statements such as "try this and you will be amazed by the results", so I decided to try it.

To find out for myself if there is truth in this my children and I decided to run a small experiment.  If static magnets do increase the germination rates of seeds (which would be great for old seeds with low germination rates), or decrease the amount of time it takes for seeds to germinate (which would stop weaker seeds from rotting), or increases the vigor of young seedlings (which can die in the first few days while they are tiny) they could be extremely useful for me in germinating difficult seeds or very old seeds of rare varieties.  Lets face it, if this works I have a lot to gain and nothing to lose.

The three pots, unfortunately one was a different colour

The Experiment
I will probably try to write this up properly some time in the future, include some graphs of the results and try to submit it to some journal for peer review, but I dont have time right now.  For now I will write it up very simply so that you can see what happened and possibly repeat it with your own kids.

This experiment was conducted to determine if a static magnetic field would affect seed germination or the early growth of seedlings.

This study divided wheat (Triticum spp) seeds into three groups.  Each group was comprised of 100 wheat seeds randomly chosen from a sack of feed wheat.  The first group was to germinate in the presence of a strong static magnet field delivered from a Neodymium magnet (approximately 0.6751 tesla).  The second group was to germinate in the presence of a weak static magnet field delivered from a small refrigerator magnet of unknown strength.  The third grew was to germinate in the absence of any added magnetic field to act as a control. 

Several growth parameters were observed throughout the experiment including the germination rate, leaf length, and root length.  In addition the health status of seedlings was measured through observation of leaf color, spots, visual presence of disease, stem curvature, and seedling mortality.  Plant growth was observed continuously for the duration of the experiment.

Three square 10cm plastic pots were filled with potting soil from the same bag to the same depth.  The three pots were watered by submerging the pots in water until the soil was thoroughly soaked.  Each pot was then surface sowed with 100 wheat seeds.  For the duration of the experiment each pot was watered from below once a week so as not to disturb the magnets or the emerging seedlings.  Each magnet was wrapped in a single sheet or 3 ply toilet paper inside a small plastic zip lock bag and placed on top of the seeds.  This was done to protect the magnets from corrosion as well as obscure which magnet was in which group.  To reduce the presence of any variables the control had a small non magnetic stone of similar weight to the magnets, wrapped in toilet paper inside a small plastic zip lock bag.  The three bags were then shuffled and chosen at random to be placed on the seeded pots of soil to ensure a blind test.

The magnets were placed on their side so that some seeds would be close to the North pole, some close to the South pole and others along the edge.  This was intended to show if either pole had a positive or negative effect on germination of the seeds.

After 5 days seeds in all three pots began to germinate.  It appeared as if seeds from all parts of all pots were germinating at the same rate.  It appeared that all three pots had similar germination in terms of the number of seeds germinating, progression of root growth, progression of leaf growth, as well as angle of root or leaf growth.

After 14 days seedlings from all three pots were counted and measured.  Seedlings from all three groups had similar height, similar health as indicated by colour, lack of spots, and visual stem curvature.  All three groups had no seedling mortality throughout the duration of the experiment.

The high magnetic group had 98% germination.

The low magnetic group had 100% germination.

The control group had 99% germination.
The time to germination from all three pots was identical which indicates that magnets have no noticeable effect on germination time.

In addition to the germination rates being similar (98% to 100%), the leaf length, root length and health of seedlings from each batch appeared to be identical.  I had planned on weighing the seedlings from each group to determine fresh biomass but discovered that separating the roots from the potting mix was not possible.

A blind test, I didnt know which pot has the magnet or stone

The results from this small experiment indicate that there is no noticeable effect on the germination of seeds in terms of germination time or germination rate due to either strong or weak static magnetic fields.  It appears that a static magnetic field has no noticeable effect on the vigor/health of young seedlings.  The pots with magnets had similar looking seedlings growing on all areas of the pot which indicates that the polarity of the magnet also had no noticeable effect on germination or early growth.

This was a blind test and it was not until after the seedlings were counted and measured that I opened the little zip lock bags to discover which pot had which magnet.  I figure if this was worth doing it was worth doing properly.


My thoughts
While I was kind of disappointed by this result in hindsight it is not overly surprising.  If any positive difference would be seen then seed magnetisation would be used by commercial farmers.  Farmers have tight profit margins and often grow in hostile environments, they are willing to do whatever it takes to make their crops thrive and magnetisation would be reasonably cheap and simple to apply.  The fact that seed magnetisers are only seen being sold by a few sketchy online sellers and are not seen in rural stores or used by many commercial farmers hints that it may not be all that useful.  It was still worth testing to see for myself.

I have already started to run a similar experiment again and changed some of the parameters, the use of sand instead of soil will allow me to weigh the fresh or dry biomass and see if there is any difference there.  An extra 100 seeds in each group is only going to make the data better.

I am using seeds from a dicot instead of a monocot to see if that makes any noticeable difference.  Doing this experiment using seeds with naturally high germination rates as I did possibly obscures the results as germination rates could not really get any higher.  The seeds in the second test are older and have lower germination rates so I should be able to see if the magnets make any noticeable difference on germination rates that are not close to 100%.

I am also planning to grow seedlings for a longer time to see if any noticeable difference is made as they get larger, in the future I may even grow them to maturity to determine if any difference is made to overall yield or time to maturity (Micro Tom tomatoes seem like a great choice for this).  There are also a few other things that I may considering trying in the future that may make the experiment a little more robust.

Micro Tom tomatoes, tiny plants with a short lifecycle makes them ideal for experiments

When I conclude this second experiment I plan to post the results (or a link to the results) here.

If you also try this little experiment please ensure you are removing as many variables as possible and do it as a blind test with a control so that the results are accurate.  Feel free to let me know your results.

________________________________________________________________________________

I repeated the experiment using some old cress (Lepidium sativum) seeds that would have a lower percentage of germination and I grew them out for a bit longer.  Again I used 100 seeds per group but this time all of the pots were exactly the same.  

The time to germination was identical in all groups.  The plants in all groups looked similar in terms of height, number of leaves, colour, angle of leaf growth etc.  The motality rate was identical in all three groups (4 seedlings germinated then died in each group).  I did not weigh the seedlings as I assume they would weigh less than 1 gram collectively and my scales are not accurate enough to record any differences.  Due to less than ideal conditions all 3 groups then started to grow mould which infected all seedlings similarly and all plants are succumbing at a similar rate.  I am going to let this continue to see if there is any noticeable difference in the groups but at this stage that looks unlikely.

The percentage germination was the only area where I could see even a slight difference.  The control group had 24 seeds germinate, the strong magnet had 22 seeds germinate and the weak magnet had 30 seeds germinate.  

This is certainly not the miracle difference in growth and/or germination that I had hoped for, it is not going to be the magic bullet to help germinate tricky or weak seeds.  The difference between 24% germination of the control and 30% germination for the weak magnet is not enough for me to think that the magnets are creating a difference of any kind.

_________________________________________________________________________________
If it is worth doing it is worth doing right. 

Some people have asked me why I only have 100 seeds in each group.  The answer is because if I have any more seeds they are too far from the magnet to experience the magnetic field.  I agree this test would be more valid with larger numbers, to help overcome this I have run the experiment several times using several different species to see if I obtain any significant difference.

I repeated this again with some older garlic chive (Allium tuberosum) seeds that I had left in a paper bag.  As the seeds were aging I had expected germination rates to be low. 

I used 100 randomly chosen seeds in each pot and used three identical pots filled with sand.  Again I used the strong magnet, the weak magnet and the non magnetic stone as a control.  As before I did not know which group was which until after I had counted the seedlings.

The time to germination was identical in each pot, the health and size of seedlings in each pot was also identical.  The early growth rates of the seedlings was identical.  I tried to weigh the seedlings after the experiment but my scales were not accurate enough to record any differences.

The control group had 64 seeds germinate, the weak magnet had 61 seeds germinate and the strong magnet had 65 seeds germinate.

Just like the previous experiments I am far from amazed by these results.  Their seems to be little to no effect of a static magnetic field, either strong or weak, on seed germination and early plant growth.

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From here I want to run this little experiment again using the Micro tomatoes from planting the seeds until maturity so I can count and weigh the fruit to see if there is any improvement in crop yield.  I will probably only be able to grow 3 seeds of each in this experiment as I do not have enough magnets to grow larger numbers. 

Due to moving etc I may not get around to this for some time though, if I do I plan to post the results here or if the results are interesting I may write another post and link to it from here.

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LESPAR Interdisciplinary Networking Workshop on Antimicrobial Resistance The Nottingham Edition

Yesterday I attended the LESPAR Interdisciplinary Networking Workshop on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) - The Nottingham Edition as I call it (@ MediCity). With a 5 stars organisation (these logos on the right side name them) I must say it was definitely one of the workshops that helped me learn the most on AMR these last 7 months. Second place goes to the one in Birmingham organised by Antibiotic Action last April.

As usual I took a lot of notes that I will be sharing with you on 4 different posts, so the information load doesnt pile to utter boredom. If I can list one positive and one negative I would say that the networking model they found is a great one to implement in the future to come in many other events that merge scientists from different backgrounds. It really triggers contribution, it really prepares the tables for the stressing of real life issues and allows possible solutions to rise from sincere discussions. On the negative part something that was present but is not exclusive to this event, as pretty much everyone these days unfortunately go that way, I talk of the neglecting of opinions from those who are mere students. The latter stated doesnt really concern the organisers, they actually promoted an open debate to vocalise everyones thoughts. But when in a table where scientific discussions are taking place, those with a higher status and experience, e.g., PIs, Research Associates, Associate Professors, Funding Bodies Representatives have the upper hand. And students acti wrongly as they just recline, sit back and watch the ping pong take place. I dont do that, I do the opposite whenever I can. I contribute, I share my views, I participate. But sometimes it is just impossible for some students to break the shell and offer their perspective because some on the higher levels will inhibit it (intendedly or unintendedly).

Nevertheless, what a great event! I will kick-off on the next post with what was said yesterday by the different people. During the whole event I took loads of notes. Please make sure you try to read it because the content comes from professionals who dictate a lot of the pulsating actions that are taking place in AMR research these days. And one thing I learned from this event immediately is that the direction of such pulsating research will very soon turn sides. 

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On Water Harvesting and Carbon Farming

One of the challenges with the landscape here is the fact that we are farming on a hillside which, over the years, has laid victim to over grazing and erosion. It only takes a moment to stand back and look at the current state and where things are headed to know something needs to be done.  Retaining walls will not maintain the natural contour of the land. Terracing sounds nice but not quite in the budget.

So taking our first steps toward improving the soil integrity and preventing erosion on our property, we have begun the process of digging swales or long trenches that follow the keylines on the contours of the land.  (To get a better understanding of how this works, you can watch the youtube below from Harvesting Rainwater the Permaculture Way by Geoff Lawton.)  Swales catch the rain water and allow it to soak into the soil instead of running off down the hillside (causing more dreaded erosion).  Being beginning permaculture students, this may all be a big experiment, but after much thought and planning about how to irrigate our garden crops and keep our hillside intact, this seems like the best idea.  So on we go digging...next will be a few ponds to feed the swales...it seems there may be a grand scheme in the works.   

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New Fish!!!

I got some new fish last night! I am very happy with them. One of my fish contacts had to get rid of some of fish to make room for new ones. I was happy to come by and see if there was any that caught my eye. I ended up coming home with five little guys. Im very excited about them.

Blue Dolphin mug shot. When they are older,
they will grow a big hump on their forehead.
This hump is to attract mates and is composed of fatty tissue. 

The first pair is Blue Dolphins (Cyrtocara moorii). I have been interested in them since I began keeping cichlids back in 2004. They are very peaceful fish that grow to big sizes, very cool. One of the distinguishing features of an adult Blue Dolphin is a large hump that grows on its head. The larger the hump, the older the fish. While it is mostly males with large humps, females can have them too.

The next pair and single, Im not sure exactly what type they are yet but I think the single one is a female "Rusty Cichlid" but is def a type mbuna. This family of fish is pretty easy to identify. They look very similar.

Rusty Cichlid

Here are some more pics I took of all my fish

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