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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Any Info Would Be Useful

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  • From: Matt Cheselka <cheselka AT theriver.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Any Info Would Be Useful
  • Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 08:56:19 -0700 (MST)

On Tue, 4 May 2004, Alex Mcgregor wrote:

> What we call annuals in areas where we have killing frosts and freezes can
> be grown indefinitely. But you have to know something about plant
> physiology to do this.

Alex, thanks for the info. What you've said here has created more
questions.

> Any "annual" will keep producing fruit (or seed pods) if it has the right
> amount of water, light, nutrients, disease/pest protection through a
> diverse biosystem and the "fruit" are picked before the seeds start
> maturing. There's a hormone released by the seed pod/fruit when seeds
> start maturing that causes the plant to slow down or stop flowering, root
> growth, top growth, etc. (given that these aren't damaged enough that they
> need to be replaced by the plant) and stimulates the plant to put most of
> it's resources into producing offspring- seeds.

Allright, I understand this, but my question has more to do with what the
plants might do after harvest. Take a tomato plant as an example. I put
a seedling in the ground and a few weeks later it starts to produce it's
first batch of fruit. I pick and it keeps producing fruit. From what
you've said above, at some point the hormones will "tell" the plant to
stop producing fruit. The weather might be such that the plant will slow
down anyhow (like because of the cold). Ok, fine. So now is where my
question kicks in. If I give the plant adequate protection from the cold,
make sure it's well fed and generally happy, maybe cut it back a bit, etc,
etc, etc, will the plant begin to produce fruit again? When and how does
this happen?

> Dr. Ivan Smith told one of the classes in Biointensive Farming at OU about
> an experiment with a potato plant at a university that was grown
> hydroponically. They kept removing the immature potatoes to see how long
> the plant would live and keep producing. He said they put the poor thing
> out of its misery after 3 years or so.

I would never do anything as cruel as forcing a living thing to stay alive
just so I can get more from it. I'm not interesting in keeping "annuals"
alive if it's not in their nature to do so. However, it sounds like
"annuals" *will* stay alive as long as they're taken care of -- primarily
from the weather. Potatoes seem to be of the type that are planted, grow,
produce their "fruit", and then die all in one season. The fact that if
you grow 'em in dirt, it's more difficult to continually harvest them to
keep 'em from dying. My question pertains more to true fruiting plants
like tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash, etc, etc, etc.

> I include this in the plant physiology part of any class I teach on
> gardening or farming to illustrate the importance of picking regularly to
> prevent plants from stopping the flower/fruit cycle.

Right. I'm not necessarily interested in keeping plants flowering and
fruiting indefinitely (I consider that cruel and not sustainable). My
main interest is understanding the natural cycle that might occur if the
plants are given the opportunity. As I said in my original post, I'm in
an area of the country where year-round growing is pretty easy and I'd
like to take advantage of that if I could.

Thanks for all the info, Alex.

Matt Cheselka
Cosmic Lettuce





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