General Information

Group Picture

Personal Bio's

Kristen Gaines
Carley Jordana
George Laibl
Salina Som
Treay Stinson

Objectives and Crops

For this project we will be growing a few different crops in order to test the effects of pests on intercropping and monoculture. A trap crop, Alyssum, or Lobularia maritima, will be planted to distract pests from the main cash crops. Alyssum grow to be three to six inches tall and produces pink, salmon, purple, white and/or yellow flowers. Flowers bloom between June and October, as it is a cool season flower. Brassicas will serve as our cash crops. The two brassicas that will be planted are Brassica oleracea ‘Flash’ and ‘Toscano’. The pests present in the two plots will be measured and analyzed to show whether the plot with both Brassicas growing attracted more/less pests than the plot planted with only one type of Brassica.

Brief Description of Experimental Design 

In the fifteen feet by thirty feet plot, we will divide it in half, measuring out two plots of fifteen feet by fifteen feet. Buckwheat will be planted along the border of each of the two plots, serving as a trap crop, to attract and distract pests from the cash crops. On one end of the plot, only Brassica oleracea ‘Toscona’ will be planted as the individual cash crop. This will serve as a more conventional agriculture plot that uses monoculture practices with a bordering trap crop. The other portion of the plot will be planted with the bordering Alyssum as well as both Brassica oleracea ‘Flash’ and Brassica oleracea ‘Toscona’ as intercropped cash crops. Within the two plots, sticky traps will be placed between plants on the soil. Each of the 6 rows will have 3 sticky traps. The rows will be numbered and the sticky traps will be lettered to help identify each trap, for example, the first row of sticky traps would be 1A, 1B and 1C.These traps will be checked and replaced once a week and the number of pests on each sticky trap will be recorded in both plots. This process will be repeated for nine weeks.

The plants will be watered regularly. Measurements of plant growth/yield will also be measured regularly. 

Plot Map