Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 4 Entries. Sunday, January 22 View Page Unsurprisingly the artificial parthenocarpy project ended in failure for various reasons, including a nutrient solution with a ppm in excess of 6000 (500 scale). However, the sunflower hasn't missed a beat and is now in the Floral primordial stage.  A few updates to my system later mean that I'm now recirculating the nutrient solution (1.7 EC) and heating the water to around 22 c. Third time lucky I hope!   Wednesday, February 22 View Page For my own future reference... This is the root mass of my 560m Sunflower from 2022 that I saved and overwintered, taken at a spades depth. I was actually expecting a huge tap root, but this wasn't the case, in fact, it was anything but huge, consisting of more fibrous roots, having tapered off at about 30cm.   Sunday, March 12 View Page Time to wake the plot up after the first snowfall in Shropshire this winter... Treated the soil with Basamid (soil sterilant) last autumn, although, and on the basis I didn't have time to work it, I doubt it served its purpose. Soil sample taken and ready to be posted.   Sunday, March 19 View Page Soil Analysis results are in from the patch. Here’s a comparison between 2022 and the more recent 2023 report. Having recorded **most** of my in-grow amendments from 2022 I’ve also shared a further comparison (last column) that considers my 2022 fertiliser regime. Note. 2022 soil analysis taken *after* annual patch amendments were added to the dirt.  General Observations, - Calcium levels have increased between 2022 and 2023 - expecting the opposite since I had a Ca leaf deficiency in 2022  - K usage seems high for what I grew, perhaps a consequence of leaching and not plant utilisation  - Fe and Mg usage seems about right (I think) - Zn and Mn have increased, although in excess of in-grow amendments !! I did mulch the patch with milled straw, which may explain **some** but not all of the nutrient increases that fell outside of the expected norm for this grow.