I like how this thread has turned to
grower research for skeptics. And roll with that I will!
Our original concept for
network research featured grower committees charged with establishing investigative protocols. We made progress with a few (which you can find posted in the
portal library) but to be honest this required a lot of coordinator effort to bring about. Few have time for committees. And perhaps even more to the point, few have time for grower research.
I'm a case in point. I deliberately planted three blocks of apples on land that offers little in the way of ideal apple ground. I made sure a sampling of the same varieties were in these blocks to make comparison trials somewhat simple. Sometimes I even do different treatments . . . but the requisite follow-up to get scientific about results just isn't there. Everything needs doing at the height off the season. I also have a personality quirk when it comes to a good idea . . . and that is once I believe a thing is the way to go . . . I tend to just up my growing game throughout all plantings. That admittedly leaves me in the subjective camp where you
know the crop is better than before. These are the riffs that get shared in new books and the occasional newsletter. These are the riffs that skeptics never make their own because, well, they're skeptics.
Another part of the research plan concerns the
research pages at the GrowOrganicApples website. These have been mostly idle for several years as hardly anyone reports in with their own inspired research. Again, few have time for this when push comes to shove. I get that. No worries.
Kudos to you Graham and others who do recognize we can take things further. I encourage it. These are the network tools we can engage anew. The protocols are really all about setting the stage so non-experts can dance a proper jig and maybe learn something for the rest of our community of health-minded growers.
Lost Nation OrchardZone 4b in New Hampshire