March 2016 - Semper Florens

Internodium
Volume 16
14 ( 20152013- 2016)
2014) Issue 3
5
Movie Night
• [Your
• Plants
Text]
on ice
• [Your
• PhDActivity]
story • New Board
• Broemmm!!!
•
Index
Chairman’s chat
Movie night
BSc Thesis
Broemmm!!!
How to grow your own
My crop
International Interview
MSc thesis
Ice skating
10
12/13
15/16
16
New year’s dinner
PhD story
Picture Page
Toon’s craft page
17
19/21
22
23
Plantlet Interview
WUDjes
Wall of fame
Agenda
March
16 TDL evening
19 Parent day
22 T3 feest
30 AXI activity
april
5 excursion flora
fluids
14 AXI activity
4
5
7
8
9
24/25
26
27
Internote
Dear readers,
As usual we are working very hard to get everything
done before 22:00 in PC95, our personal office.
Stress levels are rising now the sweet voice
of the Radix receptionist is ringing through the
intercom. Now we are getting even more stressed
because Toon is screaming “NO it’s TREKKER,
not TREKTOR!” to Berber every once in a while.
Additionally, we are suffering from a nutrient
deficiency because Jeanine dropped half of the
dinner of the Redakcie on the bicycle lane in front
of Radix (“it’s not my fault! and it was only 1/6 of the
food!”). Despite of all this, tonight was a very effective
evening: we cleaned up the Internodium documents
and found some nice articles from the Internodia
of 2002! We also made a questionnaire about the
Internodium which is coming to you very soon. Be
sure to fill it in!
We would also like to thank very much you for
sending us so many beautiful pictures (and some
weird ones), perhaps you will see one of your
pictures on the front page or Index of one of the next
editions! Of course this comes with the great honour
of having your name in the colophon.
Colofon
Internodium
Magazine of Semper
Florens, study
association of Plant
Sciences, Plant
Biotechnology & Organic
Agriculture, Wageningen
University
Editors
Jeanine Janssen
(chief editor),
Kilian Duijts,
Toon te Poele,
Mark Beelen,
Berber de Wolff,
Karlijn Luiken,
Lisanne Smulders,
Henriette Verstegen,
Next edition
10th of May 2016. Please
send in your contribution
before the 20th of April
2016
Edition
Volume 16, Issue 3
(March 2016)
Circulation 500
Sincerely yours,
Publication 5x a year
The Redakcie
Photo Front Page:
Micha van Groenewegen
Photo Index Page:
Toon te Poele
For adress changes or
sending articles and
WUDjes, send an e-mail
to sf.internodium@wur.
nl
Chairman’s chat
Dear plantlets,
Like last half year this farmer at heart
was be responsible for the sponsoring
and the accounting.
As you all know the board of Semper
Florens has changed on the 24th of February, during the General Meeting. That
is why I am writing my first chairman’s
chat. During the General Meeting there
was a lot of nice dancing by Damian, required by his hammer. Sander and I also
did our best, but luckily the HTT-cie
made another nice hammer for me. The
constitution drink in Annie’s afterwards
was a nice party where also a lot of nice
dancing took place.
Lotte van Dueren den Hollander, also
known as Lotte Longname, is our youngest board member. As a first year she
will get the job to keep the board young
and spry. Commissioner Communication is the work she’s made for, because
chatting is one of her favorite things to
do.
Last but not least, there’s Brent
Riechelman. This boy rests, as the only
non-farmer, a difficult task. He has the
duty to restrain the other board members. As Education Commissioner he will
form the link between the study and the
members.
First I would like to thank the old board
members, Damian, Ruben and Laura for
their commitment to the association.
Then I would like to welcome the new
board members Kyra, Lotte and Brent.
For everyone who have not met our
new board members very well during
the General Meeting or the constitution
drinks afterwards, I would like to briefly
introduce them to you.
We are now heading back to spring
and, like nature, it begins to itch at our
board to go to work. Not just here in
Wageningen, but also at home on the
land. When you only see Brent in our office during lunchbreak, you know what
time it is.
With a lot of nice upcoming activities, we are really looking forward to,
I would like to ask all the members to
take part in this and make our association flowering and cheerful just like the
weather is hopefully going to be.
Kyra Broeders, the old lady (ouwe rot)
of our board. After taking part in some
commissions and participating in a lot of
activities, this fourth years Plant Scientist is ready to fulfill the tasks as the
new Secretary of our association.
The man of the money, Sander Langebeeke, will with a firm hand and a
little farming common sense guard the
money.
Hilde Coolman
4
Movie night
The 18th of January the International
Committee organised a movie night.
They promised not only a cosy atmosphere, but also a mysterious movie
about plants. Off course we were
instantly curious. There were quite a
lot of people in the PC room in Radix,
where couches from the hall were
dragged inside. The chairs and tables
were all pushed aside to make enough
room. A big table was set with drinks
and snacks. After the initial confusion
where everyone was looking for a beer
opener, we heard that there were actually two movies on the program.
work of mycorrhiza to the root of
the offspring. Like the movie stated,
this sounds like something from the
science-fiction movie Avatar, which is
really cool.
The second movie was a very interesting movie about fungi, which off course
play a very important role in Plant Sciences. Both in a symbiotic role, mycorrhizae being a well-known example,
and as pathogens. The three life stages
of the fungi were explained and the
movie showed how diverse and important fungi are. The difficulties in determining types of fungi were explained
very well and some interesting traits of
fungal species were highlighted.
During the second movie the guy at the
reception announced that the building
would close in 15 minutes, so after finishing the movie the room was quickly
put back together by all people attending. The chairs and tables were placed
back roughly in the right spot and the
couches were put back in the hall. It
really was a cosy and fun night, where
I think everyone learned something
new.
The first movie was called ‘What plants
talk about’. This is indeed a mysterious
concept, since plants were long believed to not be able to communicate
and plant behaviour was a concept
once laughed at, the movie explained.
Though for some of us parts of the
information was already known, the
movie was really interesting.
Mandy Ravensbergen
I thought the most interesting was the
way trees support their offspring by
transporting sugars through a net
5
Vleetweg 12 | 1619 PR Andijk
T.: +31 228 515 280
F.: +31 228 520 831
E.: [email protected]
www.abz-strawberry.nl
Holland Strawberry House
Welcom
e to
the ama
zing
world o
f
strawbe
rries!
HOLLAND STRAWBERRY HOUSE
BSc Thesis
Hi everyone,
I’m Emma and I had been working on my
BSc thesis in period 2 and 3 of this year.
In my second year of the bachelor I have
chosen the major Genomics and Health,
as I like working in the lab and being
busy with genetics and molecular biology. During my bachelor I also became
more interested in human health, therefore I was looking for a thesis that had
something to do with that. In my search
I found Nematology, were I could investigate a protein that possibly causes the
onset of elephantiasis, a human disease
caused by infection with a nematode.
Analysing the cells with flow cytometry
yielded nice results from which I could
draw some conclusions about the way
the protein and immune cells interact.
With confocal microscopy we also took
some pretty pictures on which we could
clearly see the immune cells with the
protein inside of them (see picture). It
took some time to get to those conclusions, as the experiments mostly took
longer than planned. One time for example the flow cytometer was broken, causing that I could not measure my samples
and I had to make them all over again a
few days later.
Elephantiasis is characterised by excessive swelling of body parts and one
of the major causes of unemployment
worldwide. It is caused by infection with
the nematode Brugia malayi. During infection of the host B. malayi abundantly
excretes a particular protein, which
could be important for successful infection, for example by suppressing the host
immune system. During my thesis I analysed the function of this protein. Therefore I investigated the way in which the
protein interacts with immune cells. I
also investigated if the protein enters
immune cells or if it only sticks to the
cell membrane.
To answer those research questions I
incubated mouse immune cells with variable forms of the protein. I also made
use of different reaction media per incubation. Thereafter I analysed the cells
with in two ways: with flow cytometry
and confocal microscopy. With the flow
cytometer I could measure the amount of
protein that was taken up by the immune
cells. With the confocal microscope I was
able to visualize the protein and immune
cells.
7
My thesis is now finished and I had a really nice time at Nematology. The people are really kind and always willing to
help you. In the lab there was also a nice
atmosphere with most if the time some
nice music. I also had some luck with
planning my thesis during December. For
example, Sinterklaas came to visit us and
made us happy with candy and for some
of us even a present. We also celebrated
Christmas with a nice Christmas-dinner
from noon till midnight for which we
all prepared a starter, dinner or dessert
ourselves. I learned a lot from my thesis
and doing my own experiments, it was a
nice time.
Emma Schmeitz
Broemmm!!!
Grimme SF 1700 DLS
At our farm in the Hoeksche Waard we
grow about 55 hectares of potatoes
every year. For this we need a wellfunctioning, high quality harvesting
potato harvester. Because of the favourable currency of the English pound
at that time we went looking for one
there. On our holiday to England in
2010 we went to look at 3 different
potato harvesters and we chose the
Grimme SF 1700 DLS which was transported here by truck.
The harvester has 2 big front wheels
with a row following system so that
you won’t accidentally drive over
a row of potatoes. One of the back
wheels of the harvester can be replaced by a track (rups), which is done
with many harvesters of this kind.
The name already gives it away,
the Grimme SF 1700 DLS, a Selbst
Fahrende, or in other words self-propelled (potato) harvester with a 1700
mm wide seaving web. The harvester is
made for the harvest of potatoes, but
it is also adaptable to the production
of flower bulbs, onions and carrots.
It also has a camera system installed so
that places that are not easily visible
from the drivers position can still be
seen and kept an eye on. Next to this,
the cabin is able to move forwards and
backwards and the harvester contains
a bypass unit which decreases the
amount of damage done to the potatoes.
The SF 1700 is a harvester in which the
potatoes are not temporarily stored in
the harvester itself but directly leave
the harvester via the elevator into the
alongside driving trailer.
On a long, good working day it’s possible to harvest about 5-7 hectares
a day, which equals about 50 tons of
potatoes.
Lotte van Dueren den Hollander
8
How to grow your own
Growing your own vegetables was always a dream for me. Thus, a year ago
me and three friends started looking
for a garden in Wageningen. Eventually, we found one in the proximity of
camping ‘de Wielerbaan’. The garden
measures 320 m2 and contained a lot
of berry bushes from the start.
For me, a benefit of a garden is also
that you can try out a lot of unusual
vegetables. Last year, we tried out a
few unusual vegetables, like salsify, artichoke and Jerusalem artichoke, which
tasted well except the salsify. For this
year, even more different vegetables
will be tried, including something
which is green and flies through the
church (old joke). For this, the preparation are in full swing.
I want to end this story with a few tips.
First, do not sow too much zucchini if
you don’t want your freezer to be overloaded for the rest of the year. Secondly, sow in time periods, otherwise you
might end up with 9 kg of carrots to
eat in a few weeks. And thirdly, keep
up with weeding, or otherwise your
garden can be overgrown in two weeks
during the summer.
Having such a big garden means that
you can grow a lot of different kinds
of vegetables, which we did. Lettuce,
tomato, spinach, pumpkin, red cabbage
and a lot more vegetables were grown.
We even have our own asparagus
plants. Of course this means that there
is a lot of work to do. Fertilizing the
soil, sowing and keeping all the weeds
in check requires quite some labour.
But doing this on a warm sunny spring
day is really satisfactory (all right, it’s
less pleasant when rainy). And when
at the end of the year you can harvest
and eat your own vegetables, you know
it was worth it.
Martijn Vogelaar
9
My crop
My name is Silke and I am in the second
year of my Plant Science Bachelor. I
will tell you something about my family’s cucumber nursery.
Where shall I begin? Well, our nursery
was founded in 1865 in Den Haag. In
1938 my great-great-parents decided
to move from Den Haag to Germany
because the Germans prohibited the
import of foreign vegetables. They put
their nursery on three ships, sailed
across the North Sea, rivers and small
canals to finally arrive at a little village in the North West of Germany
called Papenburg. Once they moved
to Germany, they were allowed to sell
their products on the German market
again. At that time they grew many
different crops like cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach, flowers and cauliflower.
My grandfather took over the nursery
from my great-grandfather, and my
father was next in line. Perhaps my
little 11-years-old brother will once
take over the nursery, but for now he
seems to be more interested in his PS4!
In 1990 we decided to grow only one
vegetable: cucumbers. In 2006 we built
a completely new nursery of 3,7 ha in
Papenburg.
10
A year in our cucumber nursery basically goes like this: at the end of January we get little sweet cucumber plants
from a Dutch company (Grootscholten).
They grow very fast! After 3 weeks
we already can harvest the first fruits
which are sold by The Greenery (big
Dutch marketing company). In the
middle of June these plants have fulfilled their task and we replace them
with new sweet cucumber plants which
again grow fast and produce a lot of
delicious cucumbers. In October we
stop growing cucumbers, as in autumn
it gets colder and because of that
we have to pay a lot for the heating.
Besides that, the plants are getting
old and less productive and on top of
that the radiation decreases. But there
is enough work between October and
January (when the new season begins):
we have to clean the nursery very
carefully with heat and acid to get rid
of the Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic
Virus.
By the way: cucumbers are really
healthy, delicious, contain almost no
calories but many antioxidants. So eat
more cucumbers!
Cheers,
Silke Schoenmaker
Agrojobs bemiddelt in banen voor zowel starters als werkervaren kandidaten. Ook als je nog studeert, kan Agrojobs je helpen bij je loopbaanoriëntatie. Schrijf je in via de website voor een vrijblijvend gesprek of een jobscan.
Op dit moment zijn wij onder andere op zoek naar kandidaten voor de
volgende vacatures:
Researcher Genetis bij een vooraanstaand veredelingsbedrijf
Contact: Karin van der Drift - 06 53290167
Commerciële Trainee - gericht op teelt
Contact: Sander Moret - 06 46057478
Junior Productmanager / Marketingmanager Verdeling
Contact: Sander Moret - 06 46057478
Medewerker Verkoopondersteuning - doorgroeimogelijkheden naar Teeltspecialist Contact: Marjon Beers - 06 - 51265893
De juiste man op de juiste plek? Of de perfecte vrouw in de perfecte functie?
Professionals bij elkaar brengen, dat is wat wij doen.
Natuurlijk ervaren in Agribusiness, Tuinbouw en Food
Dronten - Delft - Den Bosch - Leeuwarden - Wageningen
Agrojobs / Rotterdamseweg 141 / 2628 AL Delft / 015 - 251 93 01 / [email protected]
International interview
Name: Lysette Lacambra
Country: Phillipines
Study programme: Msc Plant Sciences
Plant Pathology and Entomology
Could you tell something about your home town?
I was born in Manilla; the capital of Philippines. I moved to the Cagayan Valley
(Tuguegarao city) which is surrounded by mountains. The province is one of the
biggest in the Philippines, and harbours the biggest river in the country and has a
lot of beaches.
What did you do before studying this MSc study in Wageningen?
I worked at a Dutch owned company: East West seeds. I worked there for 8 years
as technology transfer specialist. My job was training farmers on modern vegetable production. It was an extension service to the farmers.
Why did you choose for Wageningen University?
Wageningen is one of the best agricultural universities. I did an excursion to
Wageningen University in 2010 during a short practical course at the practical
training centre in Ede. The university made a great impression on me, and I really
wanted to come back here some time.
Do you find differences between your old university and Wageningen University?
Both universities are famous for their plant science program. However, they differ on the educational system. At the University of the Philippines, there are 2
semesters in a year with 5-7 courses per semester, which was tougher during the
exam week. At Wageningen university, they are more focused on a certain course
(per period), but in a very limited time. Also, in the Philippines we call our professors by Sir or Ma’am as a sign of respect, while in WUR, I found it a bit difficult
to adjust at first and call them by their name. My old university is bigger than the
WUR, we had to take the jeep from one building to another, or else you’ll get late
for your next course.
12
International interview
How long will you study here and what are you planning to do after graduation?
I did my masters here for two years. After I graduate I will go back to work at
East West seeds. I am not sure whether I will keep working as a technology
transfer specialist or do something else. I like to work with farmers, get to know
how they make their decisions, but also enjoy doing research.
Choose one: lab coat, suit or overall?
Overall. I like to get dirty and do heavy work. I really like to do field work.
What is it that you like about plants?
They give relaxation. They are a companion in times of stress during my Msc.
They grow well, I relax when I water them and watch them. They make me appreciate life. When I am feeling down, looking at my plants makes me see the
mystery of life again. They grow with my care.
Are there things in the Netherlands you really need to get used to?
The weather. I arrived in February when it was almost summer in the Philippines. Here it was cold, which resulted in getting a headache. I had to get used
to biking as well. I really enjoyed it. I also had to get used to walking in the rain
without an umbrella, when it was windy. Buying groceries turned out to be difficult as everything is written in Dutch. One time I wanted to make spring rolls.
I bought minced meat. I thought it was pork, but it was not tender. Turned out it
was a mixture of pork and beef, which we do not have in the Philippines.
Did you learn some Dutch words/sentences already? If you do, which ones?
I learned how to say “goedemorgen” and “goedemiddag” and other greetings. I
really like the Dutch accent, especially the way the “g” is pronounced. I am going to miss the language when I return. I also learned how to say “achtentachtig
prachtige grachten”.
What do you think about Semper Florens?
I did not have a lot of time to join the activities. I did join the symposia and
lectures. It is a nice initiative and welcome to international students. The association helps to make you feel at home quickly.
Which question would you like to ask the next international that will be interviewed?
What have you done in Wageningen that you didn’t do or cannot do in your home
country?
Question of the previous issue, Ambar: What is your favorite quote?
I have several favorite quotes. If I have to choose one, I pick one from Happy
Feet. “If you want it, you must will it. If you will it, it will be yours.” It resembles what I experienced in the Netherlands. I wanted to return here after my
practical course, this quote pushed me to do so.
13
Werken aan de
landbouw van morgen
De wereld staat voor grote
uitdagingen op het gebied
van voedselvoorziening
en voedselzekerheid. Als
onderdeel van de mondiale
Groupe Limagrain leveren
wij daaraan een grote bijdrage door de ontwikkeling
van hoogwaardig uitgangsmateriaal voor belangrijke
landbouwgewassen als
granen en maïs.
Met nieuwe plantenrassen dragen we innovatieve gewasoplossingen
aan voor de landbouw van
morgen. Duurzame,
gezonde rassen die
meer opbrengen en nóg beter van kwaliteit zijn én met
minder mineralen en
gewasbescherming
toekunnen.
Dat is onze missie!
Kijk voor meer informatie over
ons
14
werk op www.limagrain.nl
MSc thesis
page 1
MSc thesis: chick, chicken and
orchard reunited
It may sound a bit odd, but as a graduated BSc Plant Scientist I’m continuing
to work with animals in my MSc thesis
project. Semper Florens is, of course,
also the study association for Organic
Agriculture students. In my case, I’m
specialized in agroecology. I’m working more on a systems level, thereby
exploring opportunities to link ecological principles with agriculture. Whether
that’s a specialization or a generalization is perhaps the question.
Within my MSc thesis project I’m working on a very new system for rearing
chickens. I say ‘new’, but the idea is as
old as the rise of the animal kingdom.
We are going to raise chicks by mother
hens and find ways to adopt the principle in a practical setting. This practical
setting comprises an orchard, the looka-like version of the natural habitat of
the chicken.
It’s a logic principle in nature, but less
logic in our current livestock operations.
Mother hens have a very important
role in the rearing of chicks. Not only
in their young age chicks benefit from
their mother who teaches them to peck
at rewarding objects and who protects
them when they’re cold. In a later
stage, chicks raised by a mother hen
have shown to express less damaging
behaviour as a result of reduced stress,
such as decreased incidence of feather
pecking and cannibalism.
15
The chicks that we are going to raise
are from a new breed. Again, the idea
of this ‘new’ breed is not that new. We
call it nowadays a dual-purpose breed,
meant for both laying and for meat
production. But the common ancestor
of the domestic chicken has already
found out that if you want to survive
you need to lay an egg for producing
offspring and meat for moving from a
to b. We have differentiated these two
products in hybrid breeds. But there
are some ethical issues raised around
this idea. All one-day-old male chicks of
the hybrid layer breed are killed, because they do not lay eggs, whereas the
harder-faster-stronger growing broilers cannot walk anymore at slaugther
weight. Growing a broiler chick to 2.5
kg meat in 42 days is like growing a human baby in 4 years to 120 kg! >>>
MSc thesis
page 2
>>> We are going to set up a preliminary version of the new system for
rearing purebred dual-purpose chicks
with foster-mothers in an orchard of a
farm in Amsterdam, called the ‘Fruittuin van West’ (www.fruittuinvanwest.
nl). With foster-mothers I mean that the
chicks will be raised not by their biological mothers, but by silky hens. It is
a natural phenomenon that birds brood
eggs from other birds and silky hens are
really good at brooding eggs.
I will perform tests of the new system
regarding behavioural aspects of chicks
raised with and without a mother.
Also, I will perform measurements on
the interactions between chickens and
orchard (soil status after manuring,
feed conversion and the like). From a
practical perspective I will also make a
financial overview of costs and benefits
of the new production system. And after
that, the system is going to be patented
and I’m going to become a rich boy.
If you want to know more, follow my
blog on www.fruittuinvanwest.nl or just
come by at the farm in Amsterdam!
Jelmer Zandbergen
Ice skating
On Wednesday the 17th of February the
AXI organised an ice skating evening.
Fortunately, it was pretty cold outside,
so everybody was looking forward to ice
skate. With more than 30 people joining in, we had a nice group to take over
the rink. We wanted to depart from the
Radix at 19.15.
However, there were some people too
late (like normal....) We travelled with
cars to the rink, The Triavium in Nijmegen. At the Triavium, we first had
to wait for all people to arrive. When
the group was complete again, we could
go in. Some people had brought their
own ice skates, so they could directly
start with ice skating. Lots of others on
the other hand, had to rent ice skates
before they could start.
For most plantlets, it was a long time
ago they had ice skated (climate change
and stuff like that).
The most plantlets had to adjust, but
16
after a few rounds most plantlets glided
over the ice like they were experienced
ice skaters.
There were also a lot of plantlets that
had brought their Semper Florens
sweater, this was a nice sighting on the
ice! These sweaters were very showy
and we received some nice comments
from other people.
After the ice skating, most plantlets
went (traditionally) to the bar, in the
Triavium, to drink something.
Around 22.00 we went back to the
Radix, with a lot of satisfied plantlets!
Most of us agreed that this was a nice
activity and it was worth to organise it
again.
Tim Neefjes
New Year’s dinner
For most plantlets, the New Years dinner in early January was a chance to
catch up with their fellow students,
as well as a time to celebrate the new
year. Yet for a small, specially selected
group of people, it was much, much
more. For these people, the burden of
tradition compelled them to do something they weren’t even remotely comfortable with; to sing a song.
Why, one might ask? Because of tradition, that’s why. The second years
bachelor students have always sang
a song for the board during the New
Year’s dinner. As I myself am among this
group, a sudden rush of the purest fear
resonated through my body as I was told
the news.
We were desperate. We had nothing. Only a few days to go and there
we would be, standing in front of the
board, with nothing but our awkward
smiles to guard us from judgement.
What could we do? We were like sheep
without a shepherd, like nightingales
without a song. We needed a saviour;
we needed someone to take charge.
Guess what happened?
That’s right; Louise happened.
Like a martyr offering herself to a
higher purpose, she committed herself
to finding a solution. She sat down one
night, took some pen and paper, and
made that sh#t happen. The following
morning, there it was. A song for the
board. Was it easy to sing? No. Was the
rhyme and metrum perfect? No. But
that is not the point. Thanks to Louise,
we went up there and stood together
like a group. We came together and
sang our thanks to the great association
of Semper Florens.
We sang: We’ve forgotten how it felt
before we all met in radix
And that is when I realised that this was
it, this is what creates a community.
The realisation that just one and a half
years ago we stood there in radix, as
awkward strangers; and now we were
standing there, still awkward, but strangers no more.
“And it all matters, it’s clearly how
memories are made, in a group”
Thomas Heger
17
The world of
DLF-TRIFOLIUM
overall market leader
in grass seeds
Dijkwelsestraat 70 • 4421 AJ Kapelle • 0113 - 347 911 • www.dlf.com
PhD story
page 1
Dear readers,
This is probably the first time we met,
but the Redakcie gave me the opportunity to talk about a very exciting field
experiment conducted in Japan last
summer, in which I investigated the
possible effects of climate change on
future rice production. Resulting from
this experiment, I have some interesting thesis or internship opportunities to
offer, but first let me start by introducing myself. Currently, I’m a PhD student
at the Centre for Crop System Analysis
and the Meteorology and Air Quality
group, in collaboration with the National Institute for Agro-Environmental
Sciences in Tsukuba, Japan.
Before I started my PhD, I was a student at the WUR and was enrolled in
the BSc ‘Soil, Water, Atmosphere’ and
MSc ‘Earth and Environment’ from
which I graduated early 2015. Those
BSc and MSc programs are aimed to
understand the processes occurring at
small to large scales, involving many
disciplines (e.g. soil science, plant science, hydrology, meteorology) in the
Earth system. This understanding is also
one of my aims as a researcher; I try
to understand how the surface and the
atmosphere interact, and am especially
interested in the flexibility of this system in relation to rising levels of CO2
and temperature.
19
To investigate this, we conducted a
FACE (Free-Air CO2 Enrichment) experiment (see picture) near Tsukuba,
Japan last summer 2015, in which we
increased the CO2 concentration with
200 ppm above present conditions (i.e.
levels expected for 2050-2060). In a
FACE experiment an amount of CO2 is
fumigated in the air depending on the
wind conditions. The advantage of such
an experiment is that we are able to
increase the CO2 concentration, but
maintain the natural conditions (e.g.
clouds, precipitation, sunshine, wind,
etc.). This gives us the advantage to
investigate an ‘undisturbed future environment’.
As you probably know, an increase in
CO2 has large effects on the plants in
general, as photosynthesis rates and
the water use efficiency increases.
However, this ultimately increases leaf
temperature as well, which can have
large consequences on the yield. Aiming to ensure food security, we investigated two distinct rice varieties of
which one is seen as a potential candidate for breeding due to its high productivity in the present climate. >>>
Magic? No, just
micronutrients
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production and marketing of high quality
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greenhouse hydroponics, foliar feeding, or
full-field fertigation; our micronutrients result
in healthy crops and higher yields.
We are looking for students
To help drive our continual innovation we are
looking for students to perform plant nutrition or soil chemistry related experiments
(this could be in the form of an internship,
BSc thesis, MSc thesis, or another academic project).
Are you an enthusiastic, driven student with
an interest in plant nutrition? Please contact
Marcel Bugter (Marcel.Bugter@akzonobel.
com) or Levi Bin ([email protected])
www.akzonobel.com/micronutrients
20
PhD story
>>> This potential candidate is very
distinct compared to the present rice
variety that is grown in Japan. For instance, it greatly differs in spatial morphology and physiology, and therefore
has large effects on the local microclimate surrounding the plants.
Ultimately, this has large consequences
on the interaction between the rice
and atmosphere, and could even affect
regional climate and weather patterns in the long term. To understand
in detail how this system behaves,
we’ve conducted many detailed measurements on the plants’ morphology,
physiology and microclimate during the
4 months growing season.
Regarding the microclimate, we’ve
used state-of-the-art measurement
techniques to ‘capture’ the plants response (50 times per second) to elevations in CO2. By doing so, we capture
almost all the turbulent motions in
page 2
the atmosphere which transfer energy
and mass from the surface towards the
atmosphere. Now you might realise
that we have a huge and unique dataset, and since my return from Japan
last autumn,’ve been analysing my data
and found many interesting directions
to go.
However, I don’t have time to investigate every single part of this dataset
in detail, and would like to offer you a
possibility to do a thesis or internship
within my project, so that we can join
forces and investigate together how
rice will behave in a future climate.
If you’re interested, please send me an
email (martin.sikma @wur.nl) and we
can discuss your preferences and interests!
Martin Sikma
Toon’s craft page
As a plantlet growing plants is nice,
crops are nicer, but the nicest thing is
to process the yield of your own crop.
Season 2013, just being a scholar guy
and no ideas to ever become a plantlet, I started with my own first big
project; making my own sunflower oil.
The ultimate goal: frying bamischijven, fries and frikadellen in my own
made sunflower oil.
The harvesting was quite intensive because you have to shrub all the seeds
from the flowers and dry them immediately.
As I wanted to grow all the seeds by
my own I started just by buying 2
sachets of seeds by the local Welkoop
and sow them in a plot somewhere
on the farm. I learned a lot of stuff;
like drought stress, plant density and
overturning of the plants caused by
too much fertilizing. After this year I
harvested all the plus minus 100 plants
hand. In 2014 I plotted a lot of seeds
out on 2 fields with a total area of 100
square meter. Unfortunately a summer storm in the end of July and too
much fertilization gave some trouble.
After the storm almost all the plants
were knocked down. In September I
decided to clear up the fields and try it
again the next year.
When all the harvesting and drying
is done the real works starts: pressing the oil. For this project I bought
my own oil pressing machine: the
Piteba. Unfortunately it’s not an easy
one: when after 100 times the press
stopped working because the seeds
formed a congestion and became as
hard as a rock, I found out my press
was too cold. Last month I really
started pressing and after 6 hours of
pressing by hand I got 200ml of oil.
Now, I am first making the press ready
for a drill so I don’t have to press the
other 2 moving boxes of seeds by hand
for making my frying oil!
Toon te Poele
Luckily my sunflowers gave a lot of
seeds, so in 2015 I could still use a lot
of the seeds from the 2013 season.
Now plotting the plants on a quite
wind sheltered land. Giving them a
lot of water via the irrigation water
cannon and doing multiple fertilizing
applications over the year.
23
Plantlet interview
What’s your name and how old are
you?
I’m Sarah Kalisvaart and I started the
20th year of my life - Friggin ancient! so I’m 19 years old.
I’m Geert Oymans, 18 years old.
Where are you from?
S: Nuenen, the village of Vincent van
Gogh! Literally the only “interesting” thing to say about the place. G:
I’m from Venlo, I would not consider
myself coming from Limburg, Venlo is
really something else.
Why did you choose to study Plant
Sciences?
S: I don’t like people, animals aren’t
interesting either and then the plants
are left. They’re nice.
G: Because Plants are motherf*cking
AWESOME!
Do you miss high school and/or do
you prefer university life?
S: I definitely prefer university life. I
mean, you can be the craziest motherfucker you can be and no one cares.
How awesome is that?
G: No, not at all, high school sucked.
The great thing about university life
is that here the people are more the
same. Kind of like the Dutch say, ‘soort
zoekt soort’, the same species come
together. I can now come together
with such amazing people and do
things I like, for example playing board
games.
Describe yourself in three words?
S: That’s a really hard question. (with
some help of friends->) I’m vegetarian,
hippy and crazy. However I really hate
throwing my vegetarianism in some24
one’s face. That would just confirm the
stereotype.
G: WAF (Frisbee), obsessive cleaner
and dirty-minded.
Where do you live? And do you like it
there?
S: I live at Grebbedijk 16 outside of
Wageningen. We have a big house,
with living room etc., but it’s so far
away from the campus. Also the house
is not in such a good shape - there’re
mice living in my ceiling, and the ceiling of my direct neighbors fell down
completely- , but I really like my
housemates.
G: Hoevestein 14B, I really like my
housemates. We often do things together, like eating and trips.
Did you bring any plants with you to
Wageningen?
S: two orchids, a lot of cactuses, two
hot pepper plants, some succulent,
some palm tree kind of thing, and a
mosquito preventing plant.
G: Sequoia, orchids, ferns, Euphorbia
obesas, Crassula ovata, Roscoea auriculata and some cacti.
Plantlet interview
What are your hobbies?
S: I really love to play volleyball. Furthermore I like yoga, walking (with my
dog), watch series, play (video)games,
often with my 3 brothers, we kick
zombie butt! Also just hanging out with
friends. G:Frisbeeing, cycling, music
and cultivating plants.
Beer, wine or wisky?
S: BEER.
G: wisky
What is your favorite music genre or
song?
S:I really love (folk) rock and indie music, but I appreciate a lot more besides
that. My favorite songs are aint no rest
for the wicked from cage the elephant,
short change hero from the heavy and
come with me now from kongos. And
basically anything from pink Floyd.
G: I don’t really have a favorite genre.
It all really depends on the context
which music would be better, but David
Bowie is always nice.
Where do we have the biggest chance
to find you?
S: probably in my bed.
G: Not at my parents place. I really
like to be in Wageningen. At the WAF
or at Hoevestein or cycling.
What do you think of Semper Florens?
S: Very awesome! Especially the first
year committee this year, I mean those
are the most wonderful people ever in
there! (yeah I’m in there too)
G: I like the retailprice on the books
Pick two: social life, good grades or
enough sleep.
S: I don’t want to sound boring, I think
I go for enough sleep and social life.
G: I certainly don’t have enough sleep,
so I go for good grades and social life.
Lab coat, suit or overall?
S: I go for suit, but it would not be a
dress for me. It really would be a suit.
G: I go for suit, because it makes me
look very fancy.
What would be your dream job?
S: I’m too young and vivid to think
about the heavy chains of labour.
G: I could not even think about having
a real job.
John Deere or New Holland and why?
S: I choose John Deere, because there
is the word ‘Deere’ in there.
G: I’m not going to choose I don’t care
about tractors.
Me: Geert, this is really not going to
make you popular among the plant scientists, maybe you should just choose
one.
G: No, I’m really not going to choose.
What question should I ask the next
two that will be interviewed?
G+S: Which plant would you really like
to hug and which one totally not?
What plant would you like to be?
S: A cactus. I would probably be a
cactus.
G: Sequoia
25
WUDjes
Wist u dat ....
-
Brent Sinaasappel meer een vrouwelijke naam vindt?
Sander een rugzakje heeft?
Louise een halve iets op haar hoofd had, maar dat deze niet van Brent
was?
Sander het erop doet en Louise trekt?
Brent bij het Nicolas Appert Bestuur heeft gevoeld of het wel echt een
rechtertwix was?
BAT’ 12 wel erg in trek is bij de vrouwelijke plantjes?
Toon de langste heeft?
de wissel van Biologica volgens Laura W uitgelopen is in een grote
origami?
Mirthe practicummateriaal opeet maar er wel rekening mee houdt dat
er genoeg over blijft?
Hilde zo geniet van reizen met het OV dat ze een halte te laat uitstapte
en daardoor de bus terug moest nemen?
Hilde tijdens de BV met het doornemen van de TDL meedeelde dat ze
Tom heeft gedaan?
Ruben daarentegen zijn hele groepje heeft gedaan?
Hilde bij CSA niet wist hoe het spelletje werkt?
Laura W niet weet hoe ze voor advies moet betalen?
Hilde drie vinkjes had op de checklist van Heeren XVII?
het nieuwe bestuur minstens 5 kg aan zal komen?
Hilde geen zin had om te koken en dus een frituurpan heeft gekocht?
Het op de heren wc van de International Club verboden is met lasergew-eren te schieten?
Tim een roddelkont is?
Brent denkt dat 5 net zo dicht bij 7 ligt als 8 bij 7?
26
Wall of Fame
MSc
Eva Goudsmit
Tristan Marcal Balk
Anne Slijkerman
27
Beekenkamp Group
Drie werkgebieden, drie exper tises, drie bedrijven
die gezamenlijk hun krachten bundelen.
Dat is de Beekenkamp Groep. Een familiebedrijf
bestaande uit Beekenkamp Plants, Beekenkamp
Verpakkingen en Deliflor Chr ysanten.
Sinds de oprichting in 1951 is de groep uitgegroeid
tot een bedrijf met 2500 medewerkers wereldwijd,
een productie van meer dan 1,7 miljard jonge planten
per jaar en een totaal areaal aan kassen
van meer dan 80 hectare.
Samen voor het beste resultaat
www.beekenkamp.nl