Re: Why we should be careful (was Re: [compost_tea] tea for pasture

From: Perry Clutts <addy_at_arczip.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 18:42:24 -0500

Butch wrote: <<< in side by side test should it be fertlizer-ACT-nothing? =
>>>

I'd agree... but you also need replication. You need to account for spatial=
 and temporal variation.... Spatial... like differences in soil type.. and =
Temporal... differences in weather (drought, wet). Most on farm (at home) r=
esearch specialists (or statisticians) would recommend no less then 3 repli=
cations measured against a control (nothing). So if you want to check tea a=
gainst fertilizer, that's 9 plots, if you want to try 2 different types of =
tea, it becomes 18 plots... (is that math right???) It can be overwhelming=
 to get "real" scientific research ... it's a lot of work... why it costs s=
o much to have research done...

OFRF (Organic Farming Research Foundation) has a good booklet on doing your=
 own research... it is written for farms.. but should be able to be applied=
 to any situation...
http://www.ofrf.org/research/On-farm.Research.Guide.PDF

I'm don't know if ATTRA has publications to help with home/farm research, b=
ut maybe Steve can send us some suggestions.

Perry
South Central Ohio






Received on Sun Feb 13 2005 - 20:14:56 EST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:15:46 EST