Germination & Growth Tests

Winter is a good time to test some of the compost materials we made over the past year. We use small pots in a climate-controlled growth chamber. Each treatment has 5 replicates. We plant 10 cucumber seeds in each pot, water it, and add a humidity dome. We grow for 2 weeks without any additional watering. At the end of two weeks, we count the germinations and the number of secondary leaves. Then we harvest the plants and dry them in a food dehydrator for 24 hours. Finally, we weigh the biomass produced by each type of soil amendment. This gives us a way to compare the effects of different treatments on plants. Here is a collage of photos that illustrates the process: