William Bohl
Posted: Friday, May 25, 2012 3:27 pm
Idaho State Journal
A few years ago I painted my house using leftover and new paint. Since all the paint was purchased from the same store and the color in the cans looked the same, I didn’t mix them. The paint was applied adjacent on one side of the house, and when it dried I could easily see the color was not exactly alike. The next summer I repainted that portion.
I tell this story because occasionally someone tells me they’ve used a product on a plant(s) and ask me if I think it did any good. Did it? Maybe, maybe not. I only noticed the difference in paint color because they were side by side. Likewise, unless you have a side by side comparison of plants with and without the product in question, it’s nearly impossible to determine the effect. Here’s a purely hypothetical scenario to explain why.
Let’s say you applied a product this year to increase the yield of potatoes in your garden. You’ve kept records of pounds harvested each year, and at the end of this season you have more potatoes from exactly the same number of plants you had the previous year. It’s plausible to assume the product worked. Did it? Again, maybe, maybe not.
The yield increase may have simply been due to a better year for growing potatoes. Environmental differences alone make it difficult to compare results between years. Then too, the product may actually have been effective.
Determining if a product works can only be ascertained by research, but you don’t have to rely on someone else, such as a university, to do it. You can do your own simple research and make decisions yourself as to what works in your yard or garden. Furthermore, conducting research at your location likely makes the results more applicable than relying on research done at some far away location. Here’s a brief description of how to do this.
Let’s say you’ve read about a product that’s supposed to boost the yield of tomato, and you decide to try it. Instead of using the product on all your tomatoes, conduct a test by randomly applying it to only part of your tomato crop. At the end of the season compare the amount produced, size, color, etc. from plants treated with and without the product. By comparing the results, you can determine if the product boosted your tomato yield or had other positive effects.
More detailed information on conducting your own garden research is found in a University of Idaho bulletin, Conduct You Own Garden Research, CIS 1041. Download a free copy at http://www.cals.uidaho.edu/edComm/pdf/CIS/CIS1041.pdf.
Happy Gardening!
William H. Bohl is Extension Educator with University of Idaho located in Blackfoot, 785-8060 or wbohl@uidaho.edu.
© 2012 Idaho State Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Posted in
Local
on
Friday, May 25, 2012 3:27 pm.
The Idaho State Journal invites you to take part in the community conversation. But those who don’t play nice may be uninvited. Don’t post comments that are off topic, defamatory, libelous, obscene, racist, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. We may remove any comment for any reason or no reason. We encourage you to report abuse, but the decision to delete is ours. Commenters have no expectation of privacy and may be held accountable for their comments.
Comments are opinions of the author only, and do not reflect the opinions or views of Idaho State Journal.
Speak Your Mind