[APWG] What caused surprise results in Poppy Project, where seedlings all died?

[Robert Layton Beyfuss]

Hi Craig

Putting soil in pots changes the entire ecology of the experiment. I hate it when people do pot studies on plants that are growing in natural settings and try to extrapolate that data into the real world. Your plants most likely died from damping off, a common complex of fungal pathogens that is most virulent in containers and much less so in the real world.

Bob

________________________________
From: APWG [apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] on behalf of craig at astreet.com [craig at astreet.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 1:41 PM
To: apwg at lists.plantconservation.org; craig at ecoseeds.com
Subject: [APWG] What caused surprise results in Poppy Project, where seedlings all died?


Dear All,


>From my Poppy Project in Palo Alto, California, (Google = Poppy Project+Arastradero)  I took soil samples from under the poppies where they had been shedding seeds this summer from locations 10 feet apart, and put the soil into 4 inch plastic pots.

 I watered the pots and within a few weeks, had a lush growth of poppy seedlings in both pots.  Both pots were side-by-side evenly watered and neither were fertilized.

However, within a month, every single poppy seedling in one pot died, and you can see a picture of both pots at http://www.ecoseeds.com/what-difference.jpg.

These pot-tests of checking soil samples from the future revegetation sites have become the standard for Caltrans for their projects, ever since I taught them classes on the use of native plants 13 years ago, to discover and correct this problem.

This is the second time I have encountered this very important issue in such a dramatic way that is often overlooked, when trying to get native plants established here in the West---so any guesses of what the difference was?

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333
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