Field

Well, fieldwork is all but done for the project, and we’re starting to dismantle the meteorological towers we installed over two years ago! We’ll make sure to post some of that data as we start analyzing it this fall

Wyoming Kernza harvest, and showing some Kernza at the University of Wyoming research station field day! We harvest and thresh our small plots by hand so we can get better estimates of biomass and yield across a whole field

Great turnout for our Kernza Wyoming Farm Tour - We were joined by folks from the University of Wyoming, The Land Institute, USDA, Mad Ag, NRCS, and Odell Brewing Co! Thanks to everyone who helped lead soil health and plant physiology research demos, and especially to Monte Lerwick at Homestead Acres Ag for sharing with us his Kernza fields and his extensive wisdom of growing perennials on the windy high plains.

We’re measuring wheat and Kernza root areas this summer – this will help us understand how and where these crops get their water from. Also, here are some roots from our rhizosphere soil sampling!

First soil sampling of the season! The Kernza is looking green and happy, 🤞 that it keeps raining. We’re measuring soil density this week: lighter soil has more pores, which are habitat for soil life (🐛 🪱 🦠 🍄) and store water in the soil.

We had our second annual meeting today! We presented on some of our progress to date and got to meet with some of our future collaborators at the Fort Collins USDA ARS as well as some interested growers from CO!

We went to Kansas for the Land Institute’s early career workshop! We got to tour the Kanza Prairie and learn how disturbance (bison, fire) affects plant communities and meet to many people studying so many aspects of perennials- water and nutrients use, climate impacts, genetics, soil organic matter formation, supply chains, intercropping, disease resistance… 🌾🥳

Hannah went to The Land Institute to sample rhizosphere soil from different breeding lines of Kernza (and un-bred intermediate wheatgrass). As we breed for plants that put more resources into grain, they may put fewer resources into roots, and to feed all the microbes that live in and on those roots.

Hannah dug up the root balls (the densest part of the root mass, near the surface) of these three plants. Can you tell which plant is Kernza, wheat, and wild-type intermediate wheatgrass?

Before dawn, the tension in plant leaf water is as close as it can be to equilibrium with the water pressure in the soil, and can give a good baseline for measurements taken throughout the more stressful parts of the day.