User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
My field data was collected on a weekly basis over a four-week timeframe from June 13th to July 4th 2021. This included measuring both the plant shoot height and the maximum basal diameter (mm) for each sunflower plant. There was a total of 12 sunflower plant replicates for each of the 2 study groups/ treatment levels. I didn’t encounter any problems implementing my sampling design.
During the field data collection (including on June 13, 20, 27 and July 4) sunflower plants H1, H2, and H3 were observed to be the smallest (both in shoot height and maximum basal diameter) of the plants grown in the high-water volume study group (note: sunflower plants H1, H2 and H3 were all grown/ located within the same pot). The exact reason for this pattern is unknown, however, it may be due to variation in the microsite and/ or microclimate at this specific plant-pot location. All of the other sunflower plant replicates that were grown in the high-water volume study group (H4-H12) were noted to be larger (both in shoot height and maximum basal diameter) than the sunflower plants grown in the low-water volume application study group (L1-L12).
what could those microplot and micro climate conditions be given that your design was not natural and was set up in pots with similar soil and presumably similar light and you were controlling soil moisture?