Considerations in Applying Treatments and Collecting Data Variation within your experiment can come from many sources. Some of those sources are known and some are not. Some variation can result from how treatments are applied and data is collected. With that, comparing the zero-rate plots to the other treatments was like comparing apples to oranges. An element of variation was introduced to one treatment that was not applied to all treatments.
Data collection is another potential source for mistakes.
All measurements should be taken under the same conditions using the same methods. Be as uniform as possible when applying treatments and collecting data. However, to analyze an experiment properly, you must have data from each individual treatment plot. As you gain confidence, try something a little more challenging. Plan on enough field space to do more than one strip of each treatment being tested.