Jonathan VanBuskirk - Week 7

Week 7, done. That's so crazy to say—only three more weeks to go! I'm still deciding if that's a sad thing or not. I think it is, though. Week 7 was full of lots of smaller tasks, but also a few bigger ones. And, finally, the completion (FINALLY) of my largest project so far.

My mentor wasn't in the office during Week 7, so I spent the week working through the list of things he left for me to do, along with a handful of other projects that popped up throughout the week. Most of my time was spent on the continued giant Winter Meetings survey project. After seven weeks, I finally finished creating all of the graphs required for the project. That's hundreds of charts, all organized and ready to go. Now I'm beginning to put together a draft summary report that will eventually be used in future UME publications. It's been satisfying to finally reach the point where all of the data analysis starts turning into something people can actually read and use.

Tuesday was my big travel day. I headed down to the Wye Research and Education Center in Wye Narrows to flag one of my mentor's soybean fungicide trial plots. The field is divided into dozens of different treatment sections with narrow cleared paths between each one. Every plot receives a different fungicide treatment that's identified by a color on the field map, so everything has to be flagged correctly. I think this is the third... maybe fourth... fungicide trial I've helped flag now? I've honestly lost count.

The soybean plot at the Wye Research and Education Center. Each section planted in the field corresponds to a specific treatment of fungicides. The field map gives distances and relative locations to be able to properly and accurately flag a field. Being planted and mowed into sections like this made that process SO much easier. 

It's been really cool getting to see the pesticide research happening behind the scenes with Extension. Most people only ever see the recommendations that eventually get published, but there's a tremendous amount of field work and organization that goes into generating those recommendations in the first place. It's also kind of funny because my mentor has been receiving random, unlabeled fungicide packages throughout the week—from sparsely labeled buckets to mysterious cardboard boxes that just show up at the office. I don't know why, but there's something funny about getting fungicides delivered by FedEx.

I told you, random buckets and containers of pesticides. There's a stack of these, along with the cardboard boxes and some....unlabeled bottles of fungicides on my mentor's desk now.

I also spent some time researching and collecting Downy Mildew samples from the brambles around the office. We recently received a request from a researcher in Frederick asking if we could collect any local samples of the disease. Naturally, I spent... probably a little too much time... researching Downy Mildew so I could try to identify it in the field before collecting samples. We'll find out how good my disease identification skills actually are once those samples make it to the lab. Hopefully I wasn't just collecting random leaves.

On Wednesday, I helped the local 4-H Horticulture Club with one of their weekly practices. We traveled to Boxwood Farm on Shucks Road and got to explore the incredible collection of ornamental and production crops the farm has to offer. We probably identified well over 100 different species and varieties of plants throughout the evening, making it a great opportunity for the team to practice before upcoming competitions. We also got cotton candy... which was cool.

One of the field crop areas at Boxwood Farm, where they are growing a variety of cucurbits, tomatoes, and many different brassicas under the high tunnels. 

Starting next week, another member of the Harford County office and I will be taking over as the primary coaches while the team's main coach is away in Africa. It'll definitely be a little different being on the coaching side instead of just helping out here and there, but I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully everything I've learned over the years can help the team have a successful season.