Well, that's what I ready anyway. My green bean plants are over a foot tall and were becoming problematic in my little greenhouse. I'd accidentally bent the stalks and moving them just a little to water them put them in danger of breaking - a true heartache when they've come along so well.
Last night, I took the green bean plants and put them all in the same container maybe 14 inches across and 5 inches deep. Then I wrapped all of the stems around each other to a little support to keep them all upright. They have that little bit of fuzz on them that makes them stick together anyway and with their leaf pairs sticking out, they clung to each other anyway.
They aren't in the greenhouse anymore. They're by the window. Today, like magic, a couple of the stems threw out 4-6 inches of vine and there are at least 4 new leaf pairs going. Cool beans.
On PBS tonight, Nature had a program about how plants communicate. They can attract polinators, shoo away polinators that are too aggressive, fight for root space with "stranger" plants while playing nice with plants that came from the same parent plant. Non-native plants can grow like crazy and take up a lot of space while poisoning the native plants around them, but some native plants create a barrier around their own roots to hold off the aggressive plants and will integrate in groupings of the weaker native plants protecting them from the aggressive non-native plants too allowing both native plants to grow healthy while holding off the "bad guys." Fungus and fir tree roots give each other a boost and connect thousands of trees in the same forest to keep everyone happy.
It's interesting to think about. I'm even more impressed with the scientists who've come up with experiments to test theories. One scientist exposed the leaves of a tree to radio active carbon gas (think carbon dioxide in, oxygen out). They came back the next day with a Geiger counter and found the other plants that got the carbon from the tree that "breathed" the radioactive gas.
Another scientist blocked parts of plants from themselves so the plant couldn't tell that it had been pollinated. He said he made the plant kind of crazy by making it "blind" to the things going on around it and it's own self. The plant's floral smell became stronger, more energy went to the flowers and other bits to attract sexy bugs even though it had already been pollinated for days.
Plants are smart. Smarter than we realize. How do we recognize communication between organisms without nervous systems? If other plants, fungus, and bugs can understand what plants are saying, can we ever understand it so we can listen too? Can we talk back other than the clumsy bumping around and manipulating the environment and genes of plants in the process? Sure. We'll just have to wait for it.
Folks who grow things know a little bit about this. There are guides for companion planting - putting plants that support each other together and you can make a fruit sweeter. Include red and orange flowers and you'll get hummingbirds. Put marigolds on the border and it will keep some creatures away. It's much more sophisticated than that, but I take my list of do's and don'ts for companion plantings handy when I draw up a garden plan - and I DO have to plan to give each plant the space, sun and water that works best. That's complicated enough. The green beans in my window will remind me.
Last night, I took the green bean plants and put them all in the same container maybe 14 inches across and 5 inches deep. Then I wrapped all of the stems around each other to a little support to keep them all upright. They have that little bit of fuzz on them that makes them stick together anyway and with their leaf pairs sticking out, they clung to each other anyway.
They aren't in the greenhouse anymore. They're by the window. Today, like magic, a couple of the stems threw out 4-6 inches of vine and there are at least 4 new leaf pairs going. Cool beans.
On PBS tonight, Nature had a program about how plants communicate. They can attract polinators, shoo away polinators that are too aggressive, fight for root space with "stranger" plants while playing nice with plants that came from the same parent plant. Non-native plants can grow like crazy and take up a lot of space while poisoning the native plants around them, but some native plants create a barrier around their own roots to hold off the aggressive plants and will integrate in groupings of the weaker native plants protecting them from the aggressive non-native plants too allowing both native plants to grow healthy while holding off the "bad guys." Fungus and fir tree roots give each other a boost and connect thousands of trees in the same forest to keep everyone happy.
It's interesting to think about. I'm even more impressed with the scientists who've come up with experiments to test theories. One scientist exposed the leaves of a tree to radio active carbon gas (think carbon dioxide in, oxygen out). They came back the next day with a Geiger counter and found the other plants that got the carbon from the tree that "breathed" the radioactive gas.
Another scientist blocked parts of plants from themselves so the plant couldn't tell that it had been pollinated. He said he made the plant kind of crazy by making it "blind" to the things going on around it and it's own self. The plant's floral smell became stronger, more energy went to the flowers and other bits to attract sexy bugs even though it had already been pollinated for days.
Plants are smart. Smarter than we realize. How do we recognize communication between organisms without nervous systems? If other plants, fungus, and bugs can understand what plants are saying, can we ever understand it so we can listen too? Can we talk back other than the clumsy bumping around and manipulating the environment and genes of plants in the process? Sure. We'll just have to wait for it.
Folks who grow things know a little bit about this. There are guides for companion planting - putting plants that support each other together and you can make a fruit sweeter. Include red and orange flowers and you'll get hummingbirds. Put marigolds on the border and it will keep some creatures away. It's much more sophisticated than that, but I take my list of do's and don'ts for companion plantings handy when I draw up a garden plan - and I DO have to plan to give each plant the space, sun and water that works best. That's complicated enough. The green beans in my window will remind me.
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