New and uninspired!

[minipop]

Hi all!
Just signed up to this forum after observing for some time and thought i'd briefly introduce myself. I am a student/mother/allotment gardener and i've joined up with the hope of acquiring some inspiration.

I've just started my 3rd year of a horticulture degree and need to produce a dissertation of some 10,000 words by May 2009 and currently have absolutely no idea what topic or series of experiments I want to undertake. I know for sure that whatever I do, I want it to be relevant to food production and to provide results that are beneficial to people like you and me - not just research for research's sake!

So, my big ask is that if anyone out there has any real issues/problems/comments relating to my area of interest then I would be very happy to hear them and try to develop a project that is relevant to the concerns of todays growers.

Thanks for reading

[Flummery]

Welcome to the grapevine - quite a lot of us are 'researchers' in the sense of 'I wonder what will happen if I ...' However, these things often take a season or two to come to fruition. Let us know what you eventually decde on - you might get a few people willing to help run trials so you've got a substantial amount of data.

Best of luck with it - I watch with interest!

[vicky]

Hiya, welcome to the vine!
I remember my final year dissertation...nightmare statistics...
As you don't have that long maybe something relating to germination? Temperature, substrate (pH/particle size), moisture (amounts/water pH), humidity, etc. You could determine the best conditions for growing eg 'microcrops'. I suppose that would be more relevant to the restaurant trade but some of us sprout seeds for shoots,over winter especially. Thompson & Morgan sell kits for sprouting seeds and I would think there will soon be kits for microcrops available too - maybe you could sell your research!

[Stacey Steve]

What about something on the use of peat substitutes.

Is it having an impact on the reduction of the peat beds?

Do the substitutes compare favourably to peat in price and production?

Do people actively seek peat alternatives?

Percentage use of Peat and alternatives in commerce, over a time period.

A lot of the research for this can be done off growing season, as your time period is so short.

[zazen999]

Moon gardening [selfish as I'd like a pal to trial it with!].

Heritage/open-pollenated versus F1s

Organic vs non-organic

Would be 3 I'd look at initially. You could use winter/spring crops obviously for these.

I like the Peat vs Peat substitutes one as well.

Seed germination of the biggest suppliers versus the smaller, locally saved suppliers?

[Two_Sheds]

Companion planting? do other crops/plants really benefit each other, or is it a myth?
do carrots really love tomatoes? here are a few more: Companion Planting

[minipop]

Thanks to all so far for your suggestions.

RE: Zazen999 - I'd love to run a trial comparing heritage with F1's on a mini allotment scale but many of the P&D that i would like to look for just aren't around at this time of year. So maybe that's something i'll have to do on my plot next year for my own interest.

Keep your ideas coming! It's great to read about others interests :-)

[HeyWayne]

Wow a degree on hortiwotsit! Impressive.

I cannot suggest anything I'm afraid - I know begger all myself, but just thought I'd say hello.

[piskieinboots]

I'd look at the moon planting also - and Hi

[bobleponge]

I'm with HW on this one, no nuffink bout nuffink but welcome anyway

[Birdie Wife]

Moon planting comparison trials would be great, there was someone down in Kew Gardens who tried it on a small scale but I think scientific experiments get mixed results. There are different types of moon gardening though, some do by the zodiac sign and some just by the state of the moon so it would be interesting to compare different types, sowing on good days and bad days, with a control planting chosen by local weather patterns, or purely random. You could do germination trials, quick and easy, and follow up some crops with productivity comparisons and even taste tests.