Editorial policy
How a note on The Stirring Rod is sourced, checked, dated and corrected, and what this desk will never publish.
Service page · edition of
Every note on this desk is written from sources that a reader can find. This page states how that works, so a reader can judge a note instead of trusting it.
Sourcing
A note is built from published research, growers' manuals, trial reports and the standards of certification bodies. The sources read for a note are listed at its foot, in the order they were used. Where two sources disagree, the note says that they disagree and gives both readings. Where a source is a single trial on one site, the note says so and does not present the result as a general rule.
Nothing is taken from a supplier's brochure as if it were a trial, and nothing is taken from a forum as if it were a measurement. A claim that only a seller makes is reported as what the seller says, attributed, and never as established fact.
Dating and revision
The date on a note is the day it was last checked, not the day it was first written. When a source is revised, or when a reader sends a better one, the note is amended and the date moves. A note that has not been re-read against its sources keeps its old date, which is the point of printing it.
Corrections
A correction is made in the text, not in a footnote, and the note keeps its date of revision. Where a correction changes the answer rather than a detail, the sentence that carried the old answer is replaced and the new one is dated. A reader who sends a source is credited in the note only if they ask to be.
What this desk will never publish
No price, no product, no affiliate link and no paid placement. No ranking of farms, growers or trainers, and no introduction to one. No therapeutic claim about a preparation, a plant or a soil. No personal data about a named private person, including a grower, beyond what a published source already carries. No text written to please an advertiser, because there is no advertiser.
Language and spelling
The desk writes in Canadian English. Where a source uses another convention, the quotation keeps its own spelling and the surrounding text follows the desk.