Development of a tactile sensor based on biologically inspired edge encoding

Development of a tactile sensor based on biologically inspired edge encoding Chorley, C., Melhuish, C., Pipe, T. and Rossiter, J. (2009) In: 14th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), Munich 22- 26 June 2009.  pp 1-6.

Rain Rain Rain

Far far too much rain. The sun has appeared for the first time in weeks, but the damage has already been done. The plants are either yellow through nutrients having been washed away, lack of sun or damp and disease. The squash and pumpkins have lost loads of leaves and their colour, and the tomatoes look like they have the first signs of blight. Its all such an shame but the weather is one thing we can’t control. With better preperation and more nutrient rich soil the plants would be stronger and have a much much better chance. Other well manured plots don’t seem to have suffered at all. We’ll just have to try and salvage what we can from whats left and try and work on preparing the soil with masses of manure for next year.

Squash and Pumpkin Count

So I’ve been doing an investigation into what we actually have in terms of pumpkins and squash. I don’t have a definitive answer just yet, but it seems there is good progress on a number of them and a few more popping up as well. Overall, I would say the leaves are looking rather sickly, with some dying off and others looking pale. This adds to my thoughts that the soil is just lacking in nutrients. However, it is making it easier to see the fruit, to put a positive spin on it! I don’t feel the squash and pumpkins are growing all that fast any more either, but anyway, we’ll take what ever we get. So, what have we got? I’m pretty sure we’ve got at least:

3-4 Burgess Buttercups

3-4 Invincible Pumpkins

1 Giant Pink Banana Squash

4-5 Pink Squash

1 Giant Pumpkin.

The Burgess Buttercups are easy to spot, ’cause they are green! But seem to have stopped growing lately!

The Invincibles (I am guessing) are easy to spot, ’cause they are grey! Though there seems to be the chance of more to come.

The Banana Squash I’m pretty sure is a banana squash, that or a deformed normal squash, we’ll have to see.

The rest are just too hard to tell. They all look the same, smooth and roundish, apart from one that has a more pumpkiny look to it.

In the end, I just hope that they continue to grow. The rain has almost been non-stop, which doesn’t help the chances that they have a diesese, but they are definately suffering. Especially when compared to other peoples plants that were planted in rotted manure rich soil. There is nothing more to do but watch, wait and hope for sunshine!

Banana Squash No More

I’m afraid the banana squash are no more. They were picked by mistake. I am kind of hopeful that one other squash in the centre of the patch will turn out to be a banana squash, otherwise there wont be anymore growing this year.

I should do a count soon of what we’ve got growing where and keep a track of them. Looking yesterday, I think there is at least 3 Burgess Buttercups and 5 that look like pumpkins, so could be Pink Squash, Invincible Pumpkins or Giant Pumpkins and there is one grey one (though I was sure there was two before) which could be an Invincible Pumpkin or something that will change colour as it gets bigger.

A Look Back

Click to see the image bigger. A quick look back to 5th Feburary from the 5th of July. Its hard to imagine the other when I was standing in the snow or at the plot now.

Sweet Corn growing with Squash and Pumpkins – Conclusion

Ok, so a conclusion on the Sweet Corn Growing with Squash and Pumpkins experiment. This I really liked. The end result effect of the corn spiking up through a carpet of leaves is really great. I had a few other random plants growing in there, like pickling cucumbers and lovage from last year and I don’t think that is a good idea. They become swamped and unreachable. I also think the courgettes being in the middle were a bad idea too. They don’t trail and are picked earlier and more often, meaning they should be on the outside edge at most. The corn seems to have grown well and protected against strong winds. The overall effect is great. I noticed a few other allotments doing smaller versions of the same thing. Whether this practice is more wide spread than I thought, I thought I had never heard or see it before, or if they like my idea or had the same one, I don’t know.

Overall I would definitely do this again, with maybe a little better planning at most. Better richer soil and cleared of all other plants. The pumpkins and squash are still very small, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens when they get bigger. The pumpkins and squash have trailed all over the bed, intertwining and mixing up together. I can’t be sure which plant is which any more and whether I can see all the fruit that is growing.

The corn I am pretty sure has come to the same crappy end as I always get. Earwigs. I’ve see a few hiding in the ears already and I’m getting the impression that they are just not growing, which would indicate earwig damage. I just don’t understand why I get this problem everytime I grow sweetcorn, yet I don’t see anyone else’s suffering. I need to do some more investigation.

Pumpkins and Squash Appearing!

You’ll have to click to see the picture in a better size. Here is a look at how the pumpkins are squash have been growing over the last couple of weeks. The pumpkin here I *think* is from the giant pumpkin plant, but with them all so tangled now, who can tell. As you can see they are growing at a really nice pace. Its already got some weight to it! If it is going to be a giant pumpkin it is in a good place for it as there should be enough space. How big will it get?!

I’ve got at least two giant pink banana squash growing too! These are around 4-5 inches long so far, but are looking good and show have enough space to grow in too.

So somewhere in the jungle of squash and pumpkin plants hopefully there are the grey pumpkins and the pink squash growing too. Here I found one of the Burgess Buttercups growing. It makes such a nice mix to see the different types growing together.

As for the plants overall, the weather has not been good recently, windy and rainy. I’m sure the plants have been suffering, some look like they are. Apart from that, I have doubts about the level of nurients in the soil. Looking around at other peoples squash and pumpkins, they appear to be as big or more healthy than mine, even though I know mine have been in the ground longer. I am in no doubt that the soil needs a really good feed and maybe twice, once at the end of the summer and once in the spring. This is going to disrupt my plans for early garlic and onion planting, so I don’t know how to get around it yet.

Beans growing up Sunflowers – Conclusion

Ok, so here is the conclusion of the beans growing up sunflowers experiment. The beans this year have been a disaster overall. They were in the wrong area where the soil was too poor, too full of weeds and too full of slugs. Most were eaten before they had any chance. As for those growing up sunflowers, only one could really be used as ‘results’. This particular sunflower was in a different area of the plot, so the beans were much less eaten, but still eaten too much. The sunflower itself was from a different set of seeds to the tallest ones and has grown shorter with a much fatter stem. Apart from all this what are the conclusions? I would say, plausible. With a taller, thinner sunflower, in more rich open ground, it might just work. What I worry about is the shade the leave seem to put the beans in. Maybe it is just too much and what is needed is to pick off the lower leaves as it grows, as in that Mexican article I read. The beans definitely seemed to struggle on such a wide stem as this one. Also, trying to plant beans after the sunflower had grown some, just showed how much roots pervaded the soil all around them. Maybe the would just be competing too much? The sunflowers definitely grew tall enough and fast enough to make good poles.

Overall, I will definitely be growing tall sunflowers again. Though the sunflowers I have haven’t finished growing yet, I’m yet to get the flowers! So if I’m growing sunflowers, I might as well try again. I’ll take seeds from the best sunflower to grow next year and try picking off the lower leaves.

Still more experimenting to be done.

Sunflower Growth

You’ll have to click on the picture to see it in a better size. I thought I would show the sunflower growth of the like couple of weeks. The tops of the sunflowers all look like they will be producing flowers soon, but they are still growing. The tallest is around seven and a half foot tall! I don’t know if it will get much bigger, but its definitley the tallest around

Garlic and Shallots – Picking

We picked the garlic, all of it was getting rust, though it would effect the bulbs, they definately weren’t getting any bigger. Looking around the other allotments, everyone’s garlic has rust. Maybe its something you just have to put up with. I think by planting the garlic much earlier, say october the year before, I believe you can get much bigger bulbs. Anyhow, we got a few good bulbs, which we tried plaiting, and a whole load of smaller ones. These are from the cloves I bought in a delicatecent. Just goes to show you don’t have to buy the expensive garden centre garlic! The garlic plait is still drying in our kitchen. If the weather was better we could hang it outside to help.

We also picked the shallots and tried plaiting some too. The shallots are smaller than I thought, but they just weren’t going to get any bigger. I think in general the shallots I bought might have been a small breed, but on top of that I believe the soil is definately poor in nutrients. I keep seeing evidence of this again and again. Maybe planting them earlier too would help?

Overall we have a lot of garlic and a lot of shallots. But do we eat that many? The garlic is definately useful, though next time I will hunt out a particularly tasty breed. Having SO much averagely tasting garlic is not so great. The shallots on the other hand, I just hardly ever use. I am using them, but because I have so many, I’m using them in all cases in replacement of onions. Shallots can be great, but they are just so damn fiddley to peel and you need to peel so many more because they are small. I think, practically speaking, a good crop of onions are definately the way to go. Some shallots yes, particularly if they are a interesting or tasty breed, but not in a replacement for onions. Conclusion? Garlic good, need to target a good breed. Shallots meh, few or none next year, maybe a small number of a fun breed. Onions yes.