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La Pépinière
13 years ago
The nursery for seedlings in the institute I work for has many problems, as it has clay soil floor filled with weeds, and is infested with tons of snails. To me, this is unbearable (especially after losing a whole batch of Brassica juncea seedlings), and thus I devised several steps to rectify this;
1. The weeds should be removed to prevent disease transmission and to remove hiding place for snails.
2. The whole floor must be mulched with sharp grit, which (I hope) would repel the mollusks and suppress weed growth.
3. Several nursery benches should be made and the plug trays must be placed on them, not on the floor; placing trays on benches would promote air circulation, provide more light to the seedlings, aid good root ball formation by air pruning effect, prevent soil borne diseases, and make the seedlings less susceptible to pest damage.
4. A raised bed for cuttings, filled with sharp sand (or ideally, vermiculite) and shaded by a cover should be made; as I think that current practice of just sticking them directly on the nursery floor reduces their survival rate and will cause difficulties when transplanting them after they have rooted.
The problem is, I am currently facing a humongous barrier of language, and failing continuously to explain my intentions and convince people here. This morning I tried again with a teacher who understands some English, and I failed again to convince him that sharp grit would prevent snails reaching the seedlings (perhaps it was due to my choice of words.... Or maybe snails here are different from Korean snails?), and benefits of greenhouse bench. After that, he looked around the nursery and told me that I should remove the weeds (which I thought I already had pointed out and told him that I will) and advised me to buy snail repellants and some general insecticide. I replied to him that to me, the damage seems to be caused entirely by snails (there were lots of slime trails on leaves, but I couldn’t observe any frass), and expressed doubt on necessity of insecticide for this situation. At this point, I think another misunderstanding happened, as he suddenly requested a pen and my notebook and proceeded to write down ‘mollusk repellent’ and the brand name of the insecticide he recommended. At that point I just gave up in frustration, and replied simply, Shukran bezzaf.
I know that this is not a good attitude, as it is true that I am under qualified (after all, I am merely a 학사 나부랭이), knows almost nothing about Moroccan agriculture, and have no idea on what to do in field cultivation (In Korea, agriculture majors have more experience in that; horticulture students have more experience in greenhouse cultivation and hydroponics, and those who focused on floriculture like me are even more so, but yeah, honestly, this is more of an excuse for my incompetence and lack of responsibility), and perhaps I should learn from them, not the otherwise, but still, I am receiving so much stress from this, as I am the one who’s supposed to be helping them. Probably I am overreacting…. I guess I should drop my ego, have more control on myself, take more time studying the languages, read more references, and try to be more competent(though I think it’s too late for that now)
1. The weeds should be removed to prevent disease transmission and to remove hiding place for snails.
2. The whole floor must be mulched with sharp grit, which (I hope) would repel the mollusks and suppress weed growth.
3. Several nursery benches should be made and the plug trays must be placed on them, not on the floor; placing trays on benches would promote air circulation, provide more light to the seedlings, aid good root ball formation by air pruning effect, prevent soil borne diseases, and make the seedlings less susceptible to pest damage.
4. A raised bed for cuttings, filled with sharp sand (or ideally, vermiculite) and shaded by a cover should be made; as I think that current practice of just sticking them directly on the nursery floor reduces their survival rate and will cause difficulties when transplanting them after they have rooted.
The problem is, I am currently facing a humongous barrier of language, and failing continuously to explain my intentions and convince people here. This morning I tried again with a teacher who understands some English, and I failed again to convince him that sharp grit would prevent snails reaching the seedlings (perhaps it was due to my choice of words.... Or maybe snails here are different from Korean snails?), and benefits of greenhouse bench. After that, he looked around the nursery and told me that I should remove the weeds (which I thought I already had pointed out and told him that I will) and advised me to buy snail repellants and some general insecticide. I replied to him that to me, the damage seems to be caused entirely by snails (there were lots of slime trails on leaves, but I couldn’t observe any frass), and expressed doubt on necessity of insecticide for this situation. At this point, I think another misunderstanding happened, as he suddenly requested a pen and my notebook and proceeded to write down ‘mollusk repellent’ and the brand name of the insecticide he recommended. At that point I just gave up in frustration, and replied simply, Shukran bezzaf.
I know that this is not a good attitude, as it is true that I am under qualified (after all, I am merely a 학사 나부랭이), knows almost nothing about Moroccan agriculture, and have no idea on what to do in field cultivation (In Korea, agriculture majors have more experience in that; horticulture students have more experience in greenhouse cultivation and hydroponics, and those who focused on floriculture like me are even more so, but yeah, honestly, this is more of an excuse for my incompetence and lack of responsibility), and perhaps I should learn from them, not the otherwise, but still, I am receiving so much stress from this, as I am the one who’s supposed to be helping them. Probably I am overreacting…. I guess I should drop my ego, have more control on myself, take more time studying the languages, read more references, and try to be more competent(though I think it’s too late for that now)
To think of it now, I think I should have called the KOICA office and ask for advices, instead of ranting on here. My bad.
This may be insane, but is Google Translate any good here as an aid to communication? Sometimes it's amazingly good because of the 'phrase translation' approach but other times it falls apart horribly (when a phrase is not commonly used).
Maybe the snail pesticide is just seen as an expedient thing, like preparing a bed with a shot of glyphosate once, if the facility was underutilized / unmaintained and the idea is to move on to 'more important business?' Is it the sort of thing you can ring the place with to satisfy their urges, and then reserve a small area to show that your approach works too? [As opposed to running a full experiment; they probably don't want a full half of their facility devoted to something 'weird' if it's not part of the plan!]
I'm always amazed what vinegar and a wetting agent (soap) can accomplish ... that has got to be available locally, and doesn't persist much, so could speed up the weeding and also encourage more attention to lower-impact practices? Not sure if it really repels snails but they'll probably be unhappy when it's on their food at full concentration. Of course if it's just a floor and not used for cultivation, you could always salt it (but I suppose bags of 'Ice Melt' are rare out there!)...
Can you raise the trays a little bit with just some upside-down pots that are already around? Hopefully Google Image Search (or scholarly resources) already has clear pictures of the benefits of that, which might encourage people to build something more permanent?
Vinegar treatment seems to be a nice alternative, though people here might find it weird. And I wonder if they might affect soil pH.... Still, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you.
I already did something similar with rocks. Sadly, all the pots in the institute were suffering heavy wear from repeated usage. The next time I can request meterials from KOICA, pots and trays will be definitely included. As for graphic references, I showed them my book on seedling production published by Rural Development Agency(an institution similar to Agricultural Research Service of US) which had plenty of pictures, but failed to impress them. I don't know why.
sometimes it's hard to overcome such prejudices. especially if they weren't asked before.
Beside that, I am suspecting that the credibility issue they had with my predecessor(according to them, he preferred traveling around and sightseeing, rarely working here. I do believe that was the case, as I remember reading his report for me when I was still training in Korea, and was rather dissapointed when it contained nothing about necessary informations such as soil types, typical climate pattern, and average temperatures, and was flabbergasted when I read the part where he listed some crops grown here.... I mean, how am I supposed to know exactly what species and cultivars of legumes are cultivated here when he simply lists them as 'bean'?) is working against me, but then, this might be just my imagination.
but the issue with your predecessor could very well be what lays in the way of understanding each other. after an experience like that they might be wary a long time, without it being your fault at all.
In the meantime, I'd say focusing on language is a good place to start, as is contacting whatever you have that fills the role of career placement advisor. Also, I wonder if perhaps maybe you should draw or draft a detailed diagram or schematic of how you think things ought to be laid out and then when your language is a little better, put it forth!
The problem is, Morocco is an islamic nation, and use of alcoholic beverage, although not in form of consumption, might be frowned upon. And the fact that the nearest place that sells beer is an hour and half away from here doesn't help either.
A detailed diagram seems to be a good idea.... I'll try that. Thank you.
Best of luck! :D
honestly, I'm no beer drinker. I rarely drink it, and most times I can't stand the thought... but I like me my sweet liquors. sometimes.
I diss american beer because I'm a cat, and cats love to annoy. =^_^=
Something like the sort pictured here:
http://www.amazon.com/Office-Star-4.....dp/B0015TRJCM/
That would allow you to stick the legs in pots of sand, beer, or whatever the favored snail repellent is. But maybe I'm underestimating how much space you need?
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