What is the best way to attach teabag samples to each other so as not to "lose" them in the ground? This question is in relation to the global Teabag study initiated this year (2016). Any tested ideas are welcome.
What about putting them inside some sort of mesh container, made of an inert material, and having pore sizes sufficient to let decomposer organisms in? Sounds like an interesting study that could grab public attention nicely!
Dear Gina,
we simply use a transect made of string of desired length to which we tie teabags (for this one can use short strings, clips or staple gun; staples work well for us) at regular intervals (50 cm works well for us). We leave long empty part at the beginning of the whole string. We bury the whole string and tie the long empty part to the stick (we use barbecue sticks) marked with colored tape to easily find it in the future. We also mark a tree or a shrub nearby to be visible from a distance (this helps very much with finding the right place!). Thanks to this, when time comes, we just pull the string out.
Best!
We did a research project several years ago on mine tailings where we determined and compared decomp rates between a number of amendment types. Basically we did the following:
The litter bags (containers) were shade fabric (I’ve heard of people using cheese cloth as well).
We filled several bags with a known weight of the same mixture of organic amendments. We also weighed each litter bags (to determine the tare weight).
We place bags at the same depth in the tailing (i.e. plant growth medium) in a radial pattern around a tagged ~3.0 foot long piece of rebar, which was driven into the tailing about 1.5 feet.
Each bag was zip-tied or wire-tied to the rebar.
We then remove a bag from the tailing at predetermined intervals, removed roots and fungi from the litter bag and weighed (wet and dry weight) the remaining org. amendments to determine loss of mass (i.e. mineralization rate).
This process worked pretty well, though it was tedious removing roots and fungi from the remaining litter. I think it's important that you use "litter" that is the same as the organic material you re using in the soil. Using something different, like tea leaves, adds an intervening variable that will be hard to determine has any affect.
Thank you Andrew, Michal and Tom for your answers. I was also thinking along the same lines as Michal's approach, but I wasn't sure it would work. Could I use fish line to attach the teabags to it? I would unfortunately not be able to simply pull the line out the ground because the soil and ground in this environment is notoriously hard! Which means I would have to carefully dig them out. That creates a risk to the other teabags which remain buried until the next year...
Unless I don't bury each line right next to the other and leave about 20cm gaps.
You are welcome, Gina. Fish line may work, The thick plastic one, I think. Maybe just do an experiment: prepare a prototype (short one), bury it anywhere and try to dig it out. And you will see how large your gaps should be.
Kind regards!
Onion bags work well to contain small sample units, but allow access to invertebrates etc. They don't degrade over time
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