Field Notes

Bouldin Alfalfa: 2025-04-17 13:00:00 (DOY 107)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
Others:

Summary: Oat and wheat mixture setting seed, Removed zcam and move under canopy PAR in case of harvest, Updated 720 firmware - maybe, cleaned stardot lens inside window.

Bouldin Alfalfa
2025-04-17

I arrived at about 14:00 PDT. It was cool with a low overcast and some drizzle on the coast this morning. The plants in the field have seeded and it looks to be a mixture of wheat and oats - see photos. Some areas are beginning to dry out so I expect it may be harvested soon. But they are busy planting corn and were raking alfalfa on the fields to the east.

I walked to the tower partly in the bottom of the ditch and partly along the edge of the field to the east. At the tower I decided to remove the under canopy PAR and zcam in case they mow. The ground sensors are in aluminum conduit and should be okay if it's just mowing - no big loss if they get plowed. I'll try to get an update. I put the under canopy PAR in a patch to the east of our tower and removed the camera sn RPI0W-002. The wheat/oats are not growing more and were knocked over where the camera was located.

I did the standard data collection: met, flux and camera data.
The 7500 read: 426.4ppm CO2, 511.0mmol/m3 H2O, 20.1C, 101.4kPa, 96.2SS - 97.3 after cleaning.

There has been a smudge on the phenocam images for a while. I cleaned the inside of the camera window and the lens itself. I think it is better. There might be a small change in FOV.

I moved the data off of the uSD card on the CR6 that is recording the LI-720 data. After I waded out through 300m of wheat I check my email and saw a message from Licor requesting me to update the firmware on the 720. I got the file using my phone as a hotspot and went back in to update the firmware. The interface software seemed to go through the motions of uploading and installing the file, put the version numbers didn't change even after a restart. We will see what Licor has to say.

Veg height was about 115cm tall (from wading through it twice). Again I forgot the Jaz spectrometer on its charging cable.

I left at about 15:40 PDT

Next Mowing: 2025-05-02

3 photos found

20250417BA_Oats.jpg ( 2025-04-17 15:04:21 ) Full size: 1440x1920
Oat seeds with bare dirt background