Experimental Acres

Ducks will be pastured around saplings to test whether they can improve tree growth by tramping & suppressing weeds at the base of the trees.

Visual monitoring will be conducted to note whether the ducks are effective in reducing vegetation without damaging the trees. Effectiveness of the system will be explored including tracking of labour involved – is housing/moving the birds less labour intensive than mowing and does income from eggs offset additional labour? Shiying will identify how much area can be managed by the  number of ducks present. Tree performance will be assessed by monitoring growth between bud scars to evaluate growth rates.

Henry will install posts and wire in the orchard to explore the effect of espalier style growth on a wide variety of fruit and nut trees and shrubs.

Hockley Hank Farm & Garden grows well over 200 different varieties of food producing plants from around the world. His project will explore the ability of these plants to produce in an espalier system, increasing food production capacity from a small unit of land and decreasing labour as well. Monitoring will include visual monitoring of plant health, tracking weight of produce from each plant year over year and soil testing.

Lennox Farms will create a fermented rhubarb leaf extract product to explore its use as a shelf stable natural pesticide for vegetable crops.

They will spray replicates of broccoli with various rates of the pesticide weekly and monitor the impact on pest pressure. Monthly tissue testing will be taken from the broccoli, to monitor the food safeness of the product. They plan to conduct DNA analysis on the product itself to analyze the fermentation process also.