1st of July - time to sacrifice some carrots and beet root in the name of science. (Maybe not real science with labcoats, replicates and statistics).The first metre of row, of watered and unwatered carrots and beet root were lifted from the trial plots. From the pictures above and below, you can see that there is more foliage on the watered plants.
The tops were removed from the roots, which were then cleaned and weighed.
You can see the results above. The beetroot yielded an astonishing 268% more when watered using a WaterWand than when unwatered. Carrot yield increased by a very respectable 127%.
Will these advantages be carried through to the end of the season? Who knows - it probably depends on the weather. One thing which can be said with certainty now is that the irrigated carrots and beetroots were large enough to use. The control carrots could be used if you like very small carrots, but the control beetroots are not worth bothering with.
Quality
Beetroot quality was uniformly good, no skin blemish, no pest damage.
The control carrots were very straight, barely any forking and good skin quality. The watered carrots were stumpier - they were about the same length but much fatter, there was a low percentage of forking, bit the skins were not as smooth as the control carrots. Taste was good for both treatments.
August
The next metre of row will be lifted and assessed in August. The differences this time were so huge as to be almost unbelievable. For that reason I would appreciate the presence of an unbiased witness to verify whatever the results show. If you want to do this you can get in touch through my www.rainwatergardening.com website.
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