Project Update

2013-08-20T17:38:52Z

During the past school year, I had an opportunity to present my work to a university honors conference to create additional publicity for natural solutions and garner more support for my project. This summer, along with researching nanotechnology in a university laboratory setting through a grant, I have continued to conduct natural post-emergent herbicide research, detail further experimental plans, and correspond with herbicide professionals and scientists such as Dr. Charles Webber of the USDA. I have centered my research on other studies of herbicide efficacy, experimental methods, and existing commercial herbicide options to ensure the opportunity of introducing an original product. I am also constructing a plan for the next field experiment in my project which I have included below:

This experiment will focus on further testing the acetic acid and d-limonene tank mix that demonstrated remarkable potential efficacy in my previous studies. I plan to add additional control in this experiment by planting seed for a grass weed species and a broadleaf weed species (pigweed) and am in the process of obtaining both. By using seed for two different weed species, I can obtain a more precise comparison of the efficacy of my solution on grass and broadleaf weeds. I plan to conduct a pot study, planting grass seed in a set of 32 pots and broadleaf weed seed in another set of 32 pots. Out of each set of 32 pots, I hope to select the 24 pots containing the most consistent weed sizes and quantities, thinning the weeds if necessary. I plan to test three different ratios of acetic acid to d-limonene – 1:1, 3:1, and 1:3. I also would like to test each of these ratios with the addition of acetic acid and possibly a surfactant and test acetic acid alone, creating a total of seven different herbicidal solutions. I plan to apply each of these solutions to 3 pots contacting grass weed and 3 pots containing broadleaf weed and also leave 3 pots of each type untreated as a control. By applying each distinct solution to 3 different pots, I will have three replications of the experiment, affirming the accuracy of my results and the commercial potential of my optimum tank mix.

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