1. Compare crop yield grown in a circular pattern verses straight lines in a typical row cropping system. The goal here is that a circular pattern will fit more plants than in traditional row cropping.
2. Also determining the comparison of disease incidences of intercropped verse monocropped plants. We will be intercropping the Rhubarb Swiss Chard, Kale, Romaine Lettuce and Arugula. We will monocrop the Romaine Lettuce.
3. Finding out which system provides the best economic benefit - intercropping by using a circular pattern for planting as opposed to mono-cropping by using a row cropping system. We will do this by calculating hypothetical income if we were to sell our plants at current market price.
4. Pest management is also a goal of ours, we will be using alternate pest control methods such as using the Hybrid Early Oriole Carrots as a trap crop for pests along the outside boarders of each of our experimental plot areas. We will also be testing out a natural pesticide composed of garlic and habanero pepper extract to spray on the plants.
Crops and Cultivars:
1. Hybrid Early Oriole Carrots
2. Rhubarb Swiss Chard
3. Kale
4. Romaine Lettuce
5. Arugula
6. We will grow a buffer using a nitrogen fixing legume for example around each individual section.
Design
Before we begin to plant our leafy green transplants we will outline our plot sections with carrots as our trap crop for pest control. Our plot design consists of four sections divided by the carrots, the top half will be for monocropping, while the bottom half will be intercropped. As for the circular system we plan to plant our crops in a spiral rotation that will roughly fit 45-60 plants, with the space we are given.
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