As biologists, we are accustomed working with various biotic and abiotic conditions. One may get a result when growing a population in a controlled environment but a completely different result when repeating the experiment in the glasshouse and another result in the field. It is our job to tease apart the differences in conditions to figure out why our results differ between experiments. What environmental conditions have changed? Is it stress from pests in the field? Is it that constricted roots in the controlled environment and glasshouse causing a stress effect? Is it different soil pH or nutrient application? There are so many conditions that can affect the results of an experiment. In fact, it’s usually a combination of conditions that give the result.

When our lab moved to California there were many environmental conditions that we were expecting to no longer be a problem but a new set of conditions that would prove a challenge. Last year we conducted a field trial, planting in Davis in June. We decided to plant in the glasshouse and transplant into the field. Sowing seeds in the glasshouse was very hot, then when transplanting we found the soil was so dry it was like rock. Once started, it was a race to plant quickly so they didn’t all dry out and die before we could water. But it worked! The harvest, led by Annabelle Damerum, was a few weeks later, and therefore hotter, but with perseverance, early mornings in the field sampling and late evenings in the lab processing the samples, we had a successful harvest. 

So now we know how to do a field trial in Davis! Right?...

Wrong! We thought that because our main issue was heat and drought, we would start this year’s field trial earlier in the year, thus avoiding our main issues of last year. The only issue here is that Mother Nature threw us a curve ball. This year has been really wet. The issue with planting in Davis in rainy periods is having such wet soils makes it almost impossible to prepare the fields as we would like. Tilling is almost impossible but perhaps worse than that, in Davis it quickly goes from pouring with rain to sunny and hot. This means planting in wet soils can cause air pockets beneath your plugs and then as soon as the rain stops, without contact with the rest of the soil below, your roots dry out and plants die. 

So we planted a couple of weeks ago thinking the rain was stopping. Sowing in the glasshouse went fantastically. The seeds germinated within a day or two of being sown and they’re looking great but we’re now on the clock. We start getting ready to transplant, hoping the rain will be stopping any day now. But it doesn’t… stop… raining! The day before the planned transplant day comes and we have rain all night and through most of the day. Bed prep is not possible. We’re gutted! Transplanting now is a risky move but delaying will mean it’s no longer a field trial. Disheartened doesn’t cover how I felt. We have sown 11,500 seeds and it could all die if we chose to transplant them.

We have two options, we either take our chances and transplant into the wet, unprepared beds or we start over. On the surface, starting again sounds defeatist and like we’re admitting failure but this is the option we went for as it’s actually a very positive outcome. All that has happened is we have started a glasshouse experiment instead of the field experiment we planned.  We can still harvest these plants but now we don’t have the added work of transplanting. All we have to do is sow a new set of seeds and in a couple of weeks when the rain has eased off we will have our field experiment as planned but now we have a bonus glasshouse experiment. So the lesson I learnt this week is when it looks like your experiment has failed, think of a work-around and you may actually either rescue a situation or in our case, with a bit more work we will have two experiments instead of one. 23,000 seeds have now been sown instead of 11,500. Happy days, or should that be happy funding board!