Joe DiTomaso, John “JR” Roncoroni, and I evaluated a purple starthistle trial in Napa County last month. Several selective herbicides, two times of application, etc etc… one of the replications got flooded out, so I can vouch that Very High Rates of H₂O are capable of controlling this weed… but the point of this post is a neat idea that JR had during the evaluation.

Guy and Joe in dense purple starthistle

With digital cameras, it's become more or less routine to photograph every plot during evaluation. Sometimes it really helps with interpreting the data if you can take another look at the plots after running the statistics. But many of our plots are a long drive away, and in the meantime the sun has turned all the vegetation into cornflakes.

I used to photograph a plot, then scribble a little number on the plot map indicating which photo(s) went with which plot. Sometimes things got confusing. JR’s idea was to write the plot number on a pad of paper and photograph that first, like a director’s slate. Then we could take as many photos as necessary of that plot. When the slate appears again in the photo series, that means a new plot.

"Slate" for capturing plot identification

Next photo shows Plot #5

This may be one of those ideas that everyone was already using except me… but just in case, thanks JR, and I’m passing it on.