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http://www.caes.uga.edu/publications/pubDetail.cfm?pk_ID=7470   Handbook from U. of Ga. - as tomato production has slowed considerably in the Research plot at La Paix, and information gleaned from Univ. of Ga. extension handbook link above indicates that viable production statistics are in a three week period following peak production (commercial) indicates that these results are the most indicative of efficacy.  TC to Statistics professor at WVWC  asking for help in correlations no response.  Will email Barbara Liedle for help with stats today.  Some help may be obtained from my former apprentice, Judith Vojik, who assisted me in picking tomatoes on Labor Day weekend. 

I emailed Jim Kotcon and Barbara Liedle today for help with getting definitive statistical analysis of results of project tomatoes."lapaix" <lapaix@hughes.net> 9/11/2011 12:28 PM >>>
 Dear Barbara and Jim: I need help in doing the more advanced statistics on the results of my research on stinging nettle fertilizer efficacy on Tappy's Heritage tomatoes.  Specifically, do the data below reveal enough differences to be statistically indicative?  Could someone or you help me with the statistical analysis.  I am giving a power point presentation at the WV Herb Conference in Jackson's Mill on Oct. 1st.  I would very much appreciate some valid confirmation of my results.  I think the stinging nettle as fertilizer (or soil enhancer or motivator) is efficacious.  Does my data prove it?

Thanks for all your help heretofore - almost finished.  It's been a much longer, much more tedious, much more energy depleting, money depleting project that I ever envisioned.  It's a good thing I am a workaholic - - but I intend to retire from that appellation,

 

Sept. 12:  TC Stukenholtz Lab Jessica Taylor:  I will be mailing 36 leaves from each of the five stinging nettle research rows in individual titled paper bags overnight for a total cost of $255. for tissue analysis - to determine if there is any nutritional difference in leaves from the five research rows.  I could not find any source in WV to get the tissue analysis done and think it is so important to the overall results that I am paying for it out of my own pocket (again).....

Have finished first 7 web pages of my Power Point Presentation on the Research project - to be presented Sat. Oct. 1st at WV Herb Conference in Jackson's Mill, Lewis County WV.

The Rural Blog reports on stink bugs: 

http://irjci.blogspot.com/2011/09/stink-spreads-as-bugs-march-south.html

Sept. 13, 2011:  Google research on Organic control of stinkbugs: 

http://organic.lovetoknow.com/Organic_Pest_Control_for_Stink_Bugs

9-14-2011: Tissue Analysis of Tomato leaves:  Picked 4 leaves from each of 9 plants in the 5 research rows today about 11:30 a.m. after heavy dew from last night evaporated.  36 leaves were placed in each of 5 brown paper bags (labeled a/c to row #) and will be mailed via overnight to Stukenholtz Lab.  email confirmation:

"It would be $51.00/ row for a total of $255.00. Also we would need 20-30
leaves from each row and each row would need to be in its own bag. The test
would include Total Nitrogen, Nitrate Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc,
Iron, Manganese, Copper, Boron, Calcium, and Magnesium.


Jessica Taylor
Stukenholtz Laboratory
208-734-3050

This is the same lab which did an analysis of the hydrosol.  (see July)  Photos to follow.

Sept. 15th:  My helper, tells me that the Post Office would not mail my samples (see right photo above) Overnight as they were not capable of it, so he sent the tissue samples Priority which would take 2 days or more.  I telephoned Jessica Walters at the Lab and she said if they got it in two days it would probably not be ruined.  However, to date, I have not had any contact from her stating she had recv'd the package.  I am concerned that the $255. I paid for the analysis will be wasted on dried up samples.  Will call Idaho first thing (10 a.m. or so) they are open tomorrow.

Sept. 17th:  Statistical Analysis Request (9-11 above)  Reply from Jim Kotcon, Professor, WVU:  Sorry for the delay in replying, I am swamped getting ready for the Organic World Congress.

I am afraid I do not understand what these numbers mean.  The table shows three numbers in many of the cells, but only two units.  For example, the first cell shows 7.5, 16, and a (10)*.  Does this mean 7.5 pounds from 16 tomato fruits?  What is that 10?  The next column indicates "Ave/lb.".  Perhaps a more useful number would be average weight of each tomato fruit.

As I recall, the treatments were applied to a single row.  Since the treatments were not replicated, there is no easy way to analyze the data statistically.  I assumed that the first number was weight of fruits harvested on the four dates, and tried analyzing the dates as if they were replicate harvests.  But the second harvest was so much larger than the first that it created a large Standard deviation, and none of the treatments were significantly different. 

Therefore I tried a non-parametric Rank-Correlation test.  This simply looks at which treatment had the largest harvest on each date, and compares the ranks over the season.  Again no significant difference occurred among treatments. 

Finally, I transformed the data by converting the yields to "relative weights".  I divided the weight at each harvest date by the mean of all treatments for that date.  This at least puts all data into a uniform variance.  But again, there was no difference among treatments.

The problem with all of these statistical analyses is that they assume that the harvest dates are "independent" samples, when, in fact, that assumption is clearly wrong because the yield at one date is very dependent on how much was harvested the previous date. 

So without true replication of treatments, we really can not do statistical comparisons.  Perhaps the best you can do is simply report the total yields.  This shows that the Tea treatment had the highest total yield for the season, whereas the Hydrosol at 10:1 tended to reduce yield, compared to the Control.  Yields with Fertrell were the second highest, but the yields appeared to be delayed compared to the other treatments (too much nitrogen?) 

But we certainly can not report that these are statistically significant, as none of the tests I did showed any significant difference. 

Jim Kotcon

and my reply:  Thank you so much Jim for your detailed analysis of the data.  I was very sorry that the research could not be duplicated by the 8 or so farmers who began the research - so mine is the only one which stayed the course.  Also
the way the data  was splayed out in the email is really difficult to read - it didn't look that way when I sent it.  the web page is much clearer. http://www.lapaixherbfarmproducts.com/stngntlresearchprojaugust.htm with the data is 7-27 through Aug. 20th, a time span I figured was correct for commercial marketing from the U. of Ga. handbook on same.The * denotes the # of tomatoes with stink bug spots,The August 3rd chart notes by *** how many tomatoes were damaged in some
way. *** being 3 tomatoes etc.
I did think the final totals on 8-20 might have shown some differences, eg.
Stinging Nettle # wt.  136.6 lb. 312 tomatoes 6.9 avg. wt.
Hydrosol 10-1:  122 lb. 258 tomatoes. 7.6 oz. avg. wt.
Hydrosol 20-1:  125.5 lb. 290 tomatoes  7.14 oz. avg. wt.
Fertrell:  112. lb. 269 tomatoes 6.7 oz. avg. wt.
Control:  115 lb. 254 tomatoes 7.18 oz. avg. wt.
Isn't there a monetary difference between a harvest of 312 tomatoes and 254 tomatoes?  Especially when this is only 9 plants each and if you plant 900 plants of each the difference then is 31, 200 tomatoes and 25, 400 tomatoes, each weighing over the average of 6 oz. expected for that type of tomato? And perhaps I need to do the math again on this - hurts my eyes!
So can I extrapolate from this data that stinging nettle is a viable and helpful addition to a farmer's tomato crop?  After all, the Fertrell didn't come close (and I hear that there has since been a downgrading of Fertrell as research showed ingredients in it not sanctioned). Thanks so much for your feedback _ it is very much appreciated and I wish you all success at the Organic World Congress - sounds wonderful.....  Of course, after watching and hearing Chris Hedges this afternoon, I realize
all middle and lower income life hangs in the balance which is totally unbalanced.  I await the nutritional analysis of the tissue of the leaves - I have paid $255. for it but am worried as the samples did not get to the Lab in Idaho n an expeditious fashion and I wonder if the drying of the leaves will skew he results.  Peace, thanks again Jim, not many people were willing to help
with this and I sincerely appreciate your input when you are so busy. Peace, Myra
 

Sept. 18th:  As statistical analysis does not seem to be useful in this research, I have decided to depend instead on those who have eaten, canned and observed the tomatoes for their opinion.  I will be asking the following questions:  1)  What was your experience with the use of the Tappy's Heritage Heirloom tomatoes?  2)  From your understanding of the research and the effect of stinging nettle formulas applied to the tomatoes, would you use either the stinging nettle tea or hydrosol on your crops?  If so, which ones?  I will be putting the feedback on this website and in my power point presentation which is nearly complete.

Sept. 20, 2011:  What We Can Count On 

Einstein:  "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
"Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death."
"There are two ways to live:  you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle."

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.  The important thing is not to stop questioning."
"Logic will get you from A to B.  Imagination will take you everywhere."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge.  For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and understand."
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

Sept. 25th:  With help of son, Bill, took soil samples from each of the five research rows.  A l/2 trowel full of soil was taken from each row three times, at the beginning of the row, the middle and the end of the row.  Due to excessive rain, soil was still quite wet and was left to dry in separate baskets in the house before mailing to WVU Soil Laboratory.

Sept. 26th:  Met with Bruce Loyd, Extension Agent, Lewis County, to go over power point presentation - for content and ease of presentation.  Bruce gave me many pointers on content, darkening all photos and text as the ppt shows very light and bleached out on presentation and elaborating on content for simplification and understanding.  I worked on improving the PPT for many hours on the 26th and 27th.  Having a great deal of difficulty transferring ppt from pc to lap top.  Consulted both Bruce and Justin Goodwin (computer expert) on how to transfer as my Dell computer has the "worst USB port in the world" according to Justin.  I have managed to transfer the redone presentation to a CD and Bruce will also bring his computer to the presentation on Saturday.

Sept. 28th:  All five samples of soil mailed together in Priority Box by USPS post office in Alum Bridge.  Serendipitously met Lee Stalnaker (who has visited research plot at La Paix and bought tomatoes for canning and recipes) at Uptown Attitude where we both were having our hair done.  Reaffirmed that Lee and Brian Gainer will be helping me at the presentation on Saturday.  Received testimony from former apprentice Judith Vojik, who visited a few weeks ago from Tenn.

The Weston Democrat, local weekly paper,  out today, printed a former press release instead of the one above.  That press release did not have information on the rest of the WV Herb Association Conference - I am disappointed that it did not get covered by the local paper.
Oct. 1st:  Presentation at Jackson's Mill:

 I was surprised at the Party that afternoon when I was honored to be the herb person of the year (or something like that) with a lovely calligraphy art piece by Carol Scweiker and people saying nice (well, wonderful) things about me over the 25 years or so of our association. Photo below:  from left Lis Caudill, Kathy Flewelling (in background), me, and Carol Scweiker, Artist.

Oct. 3rd press release sent out:

Oct. 10, 11, 12th Master Gardener's Nat'l Conference:  WVHerb Association Table:  14 of my 15 bags of dried stinging nettle sold (the 15th bag was hidden by mistake) at the Conference - mostly to people from out of state - Fla. and California etc.

Oct. 19, 2011:  Soil Sample Analysis received from WVU:

Oct. 21, 2011:  email sent to my friends, research group and experts asking for analysis of the above data.