Field Notes

<--2020-08-21 12:30:00 | 2020-09-10 14:25:00-->
Other sites visited today: Tonzi | East End | West Pond | Bouldin Alfalfa

Bouldin Corn: 2020-09-01 08:45:00 (DOY 245)
Author: Daphne Szutu
Others: Joe

Summary: Regular data collection/cleaning, hazy sky, harvesting soon, moved tower/sensors back away from field, reinstalled field sensors under tower, dug new well, removed 1 FD chamber that wouldn't turn on, final clip plot of the year

2020-09-01
Bouldin Corn

Joe and I arrived around 8:45 PDT. It was a breezy and hazy day with occasional gusts of wind. The sunlight looked reddish the whole day, although I didnâ€™t smell any smoke. The corn looked ready to harvestâ€”dry, yellow and brittle. Corn harvest has started on the north side of Hwy 12, so Tyler moved his chambers back yesterday.

Joe removed the soil sensors and 2-Arable post from the field and I cleared some weeds behind the tower. Joe removed the well PVC pipe and shooed away two black widow spiders. To make the tower easier to move, we folded in the radiation boom, removed the boardwalks, and used bungee cords to secure the scaffolding feet to the frame. The two of us moved the tower back about 3-4m, clearing some more weeds along the way.

Joe reinstalled the 2-Arable post facing to the west by Tylerâ€™s blue box, put in fence posts to secure the tower, cleared the weeds under the tower, and dug a new well as far back from the tower as the sensor cable would reach. He headed out around 10:30 PDT to Tonzi.

I reinstalled the three sets of thermocouples, soil heat flux plates, and VWC sensors under the tower as well as the Theta soil moisture sensor. The soil heat flux plates and VWC sensors were all 2-5cm below the surface. The Theta probe was installed vertically so the tines were underground and the sensor body was above ground.

I also reinstalled the three eosFD chambers under the tower, although I later removed sn FD20180047 because it was not turning on, even after I swapped cables. It was not a particularly hot day, although maybe it did warm up from sitting in the sun.

Sensors moved:
Theta probe sn M003370
VWC CS655 sn 17133, sn 17128, sn 17129
Water level sn 70011234
SHF sn 11326, sn 10867, sn 10861
eosFD sn FD20180047, sn FD20180048, sn FD20180067

Well measurements:
Top of pipe to ground = 58 cm
Top of pipe to sensor = 127 cm
Well depth ~ 160 cm (dry at bottom)

I downloaded met, cam, and USB GHG data. There was no PA data on the microSD card. I restarted the unit and saw promising lights, so I left it as is for now since the unit collected data on the lab bench fine. I cleaned flux and rad sensors. I downloaded and cleared the two FD chambers that did start up. The wash reservoir was full.

I updated the CR1000 program to add in the zPAR columns again. Since we will probably use these columns next year, I decided to leave them in for now rather than removing them now and adding them again next spring.

I took 5 clip plot samples for biomass measurements, the last sample before they harvest.

We need to check the sonic orientation next time.

LI-7500 readings:
CO2 409ppm
H2O 655ppm
T 25.1C
P 100.6kPa
SS 101-->102 after cleaning
LI7700 readings:
CH4 1.97ppm
RSSI 38-->84 after cleaning

I left at 13:40 PDT.

Veg Height (cm): Tape measure from ground to top of plant
251, 246, 228, 188, 236, 201, 203, 210, 230, 220, 234, 226, avg = 222.8, stdev = 19

1 photos found

20200901BC_TowerMove.jpg ( 2020-09-01 13:37:48 ) Full size: 1920x1573
Moved the tower back 3-4m before harvest. It's getting crowded underneath the tower with all the soil sensors and forced diffusion chambers.