Mid Quarter Self Evaluation
My farm practicum and small scale composting systems internship and ILC is coming together nicely. I have been going twice a week to Urban Futures Farm and spending a total of 10 hours each week there. We have shifted around our schedule a wee bit to compensate for the increasing temperatures, which has taken some getting used to for me, as I am not the best at waking up early. I have come in late once and would like to avoid that in the next five weeks. But, I have completed all ten hours each week at the farm and also have made up for the one sick day that I took!
I am learning lots at Urban Futures and TJ is a great teacher. Much of the internship is a refresher for me about harvesting practices, good soil maintenance, etc., but I am also learning lots of new information about small-scale agriculture unique to the Pacific Northwest. I think I have outlined this new information well in my weekly posts.
In the next five weeks, I intend to focus more on the research component of my ILC and begin to piece together the research I have done thus far. My research has focused on best compost practices for eradicating fungal pathogens, specifically Plasmodiophora Brassicae, in compost piles and being able to subsequently create compost teas from the composted material. There has been a fair amount of research done on utilizing high quality compost and compost teas to suppress fungal pathogens, but not as much done on how to successfully eradicate clubroot from compost piles. This is where I am running into issues and I plan on reaching out to some local compost experts for more resources on the matter.
The main takaway for the next couple of weeks is to hone in on the specifics of my research and write up the summarized report as well as implement the work on the composting structure and compost tea maker at Urban Futures into my report.
For a downloadable Word Doc of this mid-quarter evaluation, click the link below…