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

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: "Alex Mcgregor" <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Any Info Would Be Useful
  • Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 12:41:48 -0400

>> 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.

What I was trying to say is that an "annual" will keep producing flowers
and subsequently fruit/seed pods IF 1. Environmental, disease, insect,
decreased light, decreased soil temp, etc. don't kill the plant.
2. Someone or something removes the fruit/seed pod before the seeds within
start to mature. This maturation causes the seed or fruit/pod to produce a
hormone that inhibits flowering in the whole plant. (I don't know the
exact tissue location where the hormone is produced. I got the info I
needed to apply as a farmer for application, but that sort of thing
fascinates my "science persona."

>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?

It will continue to flower and produce new fruit, given the above
requirements. If they're grown outside, reduced light, depending on the
latitude, may cause it to stop. And there are other environmental factors
that may cause this. So there's no "again." The plant will slow down all
functions in conditions of low light, low soil temp..., but in the tropics,
for instance, these don't occur. An example is an uncle who lives in Long
Beach, CA. We were there in Feb. this year and ate cherry tomatoes from
his garden that were planted almost a year earlier. The plant had no care,
other than picking the tomatoes as they ripened.

> > 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 agree with your sentiment- my reaction to this was that scientists do
some really cruel things in the name of science. However, "Farming" is an
unnatural act. Nature doesn't plow, plant, selectively pollinate for
specific characteristics, start tomatoes indoors before there's any
possibility of them germinating or surviving outside... My point is that
farmers can get more from each plant (assuming indeterminate varieties) if
they pay attention to their harvest timing. It makes the farm more
economically sustainable if the farmer can plant one round of a fruiting
vegie and harvest the maximum fruit from it all season.

And "annuals" begin a death cycle once they have successfully produced
mature, viable seeds. To pick any fruit from a plant prolongs the
flowering and fruiting cycle, so we're doing this anyway. All I'm saying
is, if we're going to do this, lets do it well and increase the money we
get for the amount of work we do.

Potatoes were chosen, I assume, for certain reasons that leant themselves
to the study. the point being that all "annuals have this same growth and
hormone cycle.

> > 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.

The "natural" cycle is that some plants produce fruit to entice some
animals to eat the fruit, ingest the seeds, and carry them somewhere else
for distribution. To "farm" plants is "unnatural." (And we do this with
animals.) We all have developed belief systems to cover what we agree and
disagree with- ranging from a hunter/gatherer society to mega-chemical
farming. How and why you do things is as valid as anyone else's. And it's
encouraging to me to see that there is some moral/ethical/spiritual
background to your belief system. That's what I believe is missing from
the way we do everything in this culture.

Alex McGregor
Walden Farm





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