Fertilizer is mixed and spread by hand twice a year,
once in early May and once in late June. Each plot gets the fertilizer
mixture specified by its fertilizer treatment code. For a list of fertilizer
treatments for each plot, see files trmte11.
Fencing
The entire experiment was surrounded by electric fence to
discourage entry by white-tailed deer.
Competition Treatments
No neighbor treatment was imposed by driving
a ring of galvanized sheet steel (50cm diameter, 15cm tall) into the ground
until its top was at the soil surface, and killing all plants in the enclosed
area with Roundup. Any resprouting neighbor biomass was removed by hand.
Steel was installed during May 11-13, 1988 and Roundup applied on 13 May 1988.
Transplants that were grown with only roots of neighbors had a net that tied
back the shoots and leaves of neighbors so that a transplant in the center of
the net was not shaded by neighbors but was surrounded by neighbor roots.
White plastic garden net (50cm x 50cm; mesh:1cm x 2cm) was fastened at its
center to the soil surface using four steel pins, each 8cm long. The center
portion (5cm x 5cm) of the net was cut out to allow transplanting. The outer
corners of the net were held 10cm above the soil using pins 20cm long. Nets
were installed on May 16, 1988.
Insecticide
Transplants were dusted with an insecticide (Sevin)
weekly during June to prevent insect grazing.
Small Mammal Trapping
1400-trap nights in May and June failed to
capture any small mammals.