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We wrapped up the week with a productive Friday. In the morning Kory headed out to Hegg Lake, while Sarah assessed phenology in the common garden (I think we were down to 75 heads today). Ilse and I have been slowly repainting the heads in the qGen2 crossing experiment. Nothing is ready to be harvested from the experiment yet, but it’s good to revisit the plants and stay ahead of any paint flaking off. Even without painting the entire head (a mistake I was making earlier this week) it’s still a slow process. Here’s one I finished today. I still may be going a little excessive with the paint…
Before lunch we all weeded the common garden for any leftover thistle and birdsfoot trefoil. We managed to pull quite a bit of thistle but didn’t find any trefoil. A good sign? After a quick lunch we split up and went to the remnants Steven’s approach and Riley to finish up the last three seedling searches. We all went our separate ways after that: Ilse continued to re-paint heads, Kory edited the last of his pollinator videos, and I finally finished my “re-checks” in the common garden (I seem to be the slow poke of the group). I also began taking pictures of leaves in the aphid addition/exclusion experiment to count trichomes and see if there are any differences between treatments. I’ll keep everyone posted as that progresses.
Have a good weekend!
Hey everyone,
We started off another week with a super productive Monday. In the morning the team split up between crossing and seedling re-finds. Ilse, Gretel, and I finished all the crossing in the morning which was especially exciting because we anticipated today being our busiest crossing day. Since many plants have finished flowering by now, we’re mostly topping off those last few styles with pollen and then waiting for everything to shrivel. While a few plants have hit snafus (pollen X running out before plant Y is finished flowering), the going has been steadily smooth. The seedling re-find crew (Stuart, Marie, Dayvis, Kory, and Sarah B) managed to finish two sites this morning with only one visor. Extra impressive!
Although we’re still sad to see the first of team Echinacea depart (Sara Z on Saturday), we welcomed the return of Mike, Reina, and Pam who spent the last week at ESA. The Gustavus trio spent most of the day measuring photosynthesis with “Helga” and collecting leaves.
This afternoon we all began measuring the Big Batch section of CG1. Although a daunting amount of plants, we managed to make a serious dent and will hopefully get through all of it by the end of the week.
I’ll sign off with a grasshopper photo I took during phenology. Have a good week!
It’s the start of a new week for Team Echinacea. This morning was jam packed with phenology and crossing. We’re past peak flowering at this point which is making phenology go quite a bit faster, however we’re definitely in the midst of peak crossing. Ilse and I printed off nearly 25 pages of crossing information, and together Team Echinacea probably visited three quarters of the plants in the crossing experiment today. Wowee!
The afternoon was spent (as many afternoons recently) crossing and measuring the common garden. After lunch we did spend an hour pulling thistle, which was surprisingly more enjoyable than it sounds (gloves helped). Kory got the record for largest thistle with this bad boy.
Marie made some delish baked mac n cheese with a side of broccoli puree for dinner and the mayor of Kensington stopped by to alert us of construction due next week. Not a bad Monday.
Another bustling day here in Douglas County. Gretel, Ilse, Ruth, and I continued working on the crossing experiment this morning while everyone else got busy with their independent projects. Mike and Reina were taking pictures of plants and counting trichomes while Marie and Kory were at Hegg Lake. Sarah B (you guessed it) continued her work on phenology while Sara Z collected some very mysterious ants that have been eating the head of one of the plants in the crossing experiments (uh oh).
After lunch the group started measuring plants in the common garden. While the weather forecast said only 10% chance of rain today, we got hit with some definite showers and were forced to abandon outdoor work for the rest of the day. Instead we had our second group tutorial in R where we learned some more basics like randomization and creating data frames.
The last few days have been quite steamy here in Douglas County, but Echinacea continues to flower and so our work doesn’t stop! A lot happened this morning for team echinacea. Sarah B continued her assessment of phenology in the remnants while Dayvis and Kory were at Hegg Lake continuing their independent projects. Gretel led a team to assess phenology in the common garden and Ilse and I went out to Staffanson to collect pollen for the cross experiment.
In the afternoon nearly everyone helped Amy finish searching for her plants out at Hegg Lake and were treated to ice cream afterwards. Ilse and I entered some data and practiced our artistic skills out in the common garden (i.e. painted some bracts). Looks like we’ll start the official crosses tomorrow!
I made an enormous amount of fried rice for dinner tonight and a bunch of us crafted pollinator exclusion bags/cages while watching X-men. The forecast for tomorrow says it’s supposed to be a bit cooler, let’s hope so!
Today was a great day for Team Echinacea. Most of us began our mornings searching for stipa and then went out to Hegg Lake where we finished measuring plants in Jennifer’s common garden! Woot woot! I took an photo of the group and was so excited that my finger made it into the photo…whoops! Dayvis continued to observed pollinators and Reina and Pam were super productive measuring photosynthetic rates of plants in INB2 (maybe it’s the new wagon they got for lugging around Helga).
At lunch Kory updated us with his progress on his pollinator efficiency project and Jennifer surprised us with a delicious watermelon as a treat for finishing up stuff at Hegg Lake. Marie did the honors of cutting up the watermelon (little did we know it was her first time).
The afternoon felt a bit like deja vu of the morning. We did another round of searching for stipa (rumor has it we’re just about half way done!) and then returned to Hegg Lake. Turns out we didn’t actually “finish” measuring plants…now it’s time to double check all the ones we didn’t find the first time. Looks like we’ll finish that up tomorrow though, and then be actually done with Hegg Lake for the weekend.
Happy Thursday!
What a beautiful 4th of July!
This morning was jammed packed with grass. Team Echinacea did another round of searching for stipa followed by an assessment of dichanthelium in the ’99 south garden. Jennifer Ison and her father came and helped out with both these surveys and will be around for a couple weeks. In other news: Sara Z found a massive (nearly 1m) and intact snake skin which she kindly bestowed upon an excited Sarah B.
After all the grass searching we all went our separate ways (or rather back to the town hall) to put together our various potluck fixings and then met up with Stuart and his family at Elk Lake where we feasted upon a variety of delicious food. I definitely set a personal record with the number of deviled eggs consumed in one afternoon, and I don’t think I was the only one uncomfortably full. Dayvis entertained us with his Bandola while we digested and then many of us went out for canoe rides. After struggling a bit with steering the canoe properly, Dayvis, Hattie, and I smoked the other canoe in a “race” back to shore. After more swimming, snacking, and socializing it was time to head back and rest up for watching fireworks this evening. Happy 4th of July everyone!
Today was a relaxing day for team Echinacea. Dayvis and Marie headed out in the wee hours of the morning to Fargo where they did some exploring and checked out a Nordic Festival. Ilse and I headed over to Alexandria in the morning to do our first load of laundry of the summer and to visit the farmers market. Reina was also in Alexandria checking out more books at the library and doing some shopping of her own. The afternoon didn’t have too many highlights — the refrigerator got reorganized and Ilse and Sarah B went out for runs. Kory returned from the cities and I finished my book (Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese — I highly recommend it), and then we all cooked up various fixings for dinner. Our final team member (Sara Z) will be joining us tomorrow. A couple days ago we moved around various furniture to create a cozy living space in the loft. Check it out!
Hey everyone! My name is Lydia English and I just graduated from Carleton College a couple weeks ago. I’m originally from Rhode Island where my parents and two cats reside, but I just can’t get enough of the midwest so I’ll be spending another year out here.
My interests lie in conservation biology and restoration ecology and this will be my second summer working in prairies. I’ll be looking to continue Katherine’s work on aphids and their effects on Echinacea fitness and phenology, but I’m also really interested in the compatibility experiments. Overall I think it’ll be a fun and exciting summer!
If you’d like to check out my page at the Echinacea Project’s website click here
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