Blog 1

For my senior project, I am looking at the impact of earthworm castings on apricot tree growth. I will be conducting an experiment where I am comparing 2 groups: a control (no earthworm castings to 14 trees) and an experimental group (earthworm castings applied to 14 trees) to see if the inclusion of this soil amendment makes significant differences in soil metric and plant growth consequently between the 2 groups. My research question is what effect would Earthworm Castings application have on apricot soil nutrient content, soil characteristics, and plant growth consequently. My hypothesis is that if Earthworm Castings is applied, the soil should see a clear increase in key plant nutrients and plant growth in comparison to the Control plots. As someone passionate about environmental sciences, I chose this project and to work with earthworm castings because it aligns with sustainable agriculture in how earthworm waste can be used in an organic manner to sustain plants. In the short term, If the results are promising, I would do further research to isolate the role of specific nutrients on plant growth. In the long term, the overall results will inform me of a better design of chemical solutions or products that can be applied to plants to increase agricultural productivity in an effective and efficient manner from a sustainability and economic standpoint