Part 2 of Thesis Things

Oh boy, it has been a while since I posted one of these. 

Over the last little bit (a few months), my project has officially-officially started. The prep work went well; from the pre-grown Kochia, I was able to get enough above- and below-ground biomass to plant out the actual experiment. 

For anyone who didn't read the previous post on this topic, I am conducting my undergraduate research thesis to determine whether Kochia (Bassia scoparia) exhibits any allelopathic and/or autoallelopathic properties. In total, the trial has 32 pots, 16 of each Kochia and grain corn. Of those 16 pots, four are control, four only have Kochia root in them, four have kochia roots and ground up above-ground tissue, and four have only above-ground tissue. The tissue was only sprinkled on the top of each pot so as to not wreck any roots, making it more closely replicate an actual field experiment. 

In the last post, I wasn't sure what the second species, along with Kochia was going to be. After reading Crop yield losses due to kochia (Bassia scoparia) interference by Geddes and Sharpe, though, I found out that grain corn can have >90% yield loss due to kochia. That's crazy! I wanted to see if it was caused by the actual kochia plant coming up quicker and being more aggressive than the corn, and if that's the case, what can we do about it? 

Speaking of corn, the stuff I planted has already begun to come up! Which is very exciting because it means the kochia isn't showing allelopathic effects on the corn. If the kochia has a hard time germinating, this could be really, really exciting for finding ways to control it. 

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In other news about this, it's going to be a longgg race to the finish line. Although my supervisor has gotten better, I learned she also has no idea what's going on. Both she and I are learning as we're going. That's either going to make it amazing with all the freedom I have with the project, or terrible because I have all this freedom with the project. This, coupled with the assignments I have to do for this (because why wouldn't I need more work?), has been a little hectic, but nonetheless, I am excited. No matter if I reject or accept my hypothesis, I'm glad I get to have actual research experience. 

That's all for now, 

xoxo