bigger plants – Hydroponic Economics

Plant Growth: How Do Plants Grow?

How DO plants grow? Did you ever stop and think about it? When you notice little movements from day to day, you know your plant is growing. It seems like those leaves just pop out of no where doesn’t it?

Today you are going to learn a little horticulture 101. You are going to find out exactly how plants grow. Plant growth is an interesting topic, because before we had microscopes, there was only speculation on how plants grew. There are a few key terms we must define:

Horticulture: “A process by which a plot of soil is prepared for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings.” About.com Archaeology. We are going to let horticulture encompass all of hydroponics as well.
Meristem: The Meristem is the part of a plant that is capable of cell division.
Cell Division: The process by which cells multiply. The cells multiply by constantly dividing. (No pun intended).

Where Does Plant Growth Happen?

Plant growth can only occur where there is cell division. Cell division occurs at the Apical Meristem. You can think of this as the top node. It is the node that is just popping up. If you have ever topped your plant to bush it out and spread the top nodes, you cut the apical meristem.

Apical Meristem

The apical meristem can be cut to make two new top branches. The meristem doesn’t physically split into two branches. The two shoots below the apical meristem, both become apical meristems. It is actually a cool trick for the plant to make two apical meristems, because if another one got cut or damaged, it could continue growing. You’ll find that if you chop off both of the other two apical meristems, you will have four apical meristems.

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Does Music Affect Plant Growth?

When I saw people were searching for this on Google, I just had to write a post about it. Below is an excerpt from Suite 101 about Early Research on Plant Growth and Music.

Early Research on Music and Plants

Dorothy Retallack, a researcher at the Colorado Woman’s College in Denver, published her work on music and plants in 1973 in the book The Sound of Music and Plants. In one experiment, Retallack found that plants thrived when she played a tone intermittently, but died when she played the same tone constantly. In another experiment, she found that plants grew better when she played “soothing” music on the radio, whereas rock music affected plant growth negatively.

Another of Retallack’s experiments sought to discover what kind of classical music plants liked best, finding that plants exposed to North Indian classical music leaned towards the speakers, while plants exposed to the modern, dischordant classical music of composers such as Schoenberg leaned away from the speakers — but not nearly as much as the plants exposed to harsh rock music.

Read more at Suite101: Does Music Affect Plant Growth? http://www.suite101.com/content/does-music-affect-plant-growth-a282993#ixzz1D7pmfkaJ

Isn’t that interesting? I didn’t find the study report, just the reporter’s view on it, but nonetheless, its interested to hear a scientist make claims like this.

What do you think?

You could try your own experiment or research more about the topic. I figured it would be insignificant gains at best, but anything is worth a shot! Here is a link to a experiment you can do yourself.

Leave your results and thoughts in the comments below. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say!

Spring Garden Planning: When to Start Seeds

Are you preparing for your Spring Garden? Do you know when to start your seeds or is that why you’re here? Its a common question/anticipation between gardeners everywhere. When should I start my seeds?

You can closely watch your weather forecasts and plan the frost dates of your zone, but it takes a lot of time. Time that a lot of you don’t have. I’ve found an easy solution to the age old Spring Garden planning dilemma.

Do you want to know what it is? GrowVeg.com

What is GrowVeg.com?

GrowVeg.com is a Garden Planning service. You sign up for an account(Free 30 Day Trial) and plan out your garden. You can choose the type of plants you are growing and set up automatic reminders for yourself.

Why Should You Care?

You can plan out the varieties of plants you want so you don’t forget any. GrowVeg also allows you to setup automatic reminders, so you can plant varieties on the exact days you want. GrowVeg will adapt to your zone and tell you when to plant your seeds. You will get a reminder saying when its time to start seeds.

GrowVeg also remembers your garden for next year. You won’t have to replan your garden. When Spring time comes around, planning your garden will be a piece of cake.

What are you waiting for? Give it a shot for Free here.