The sweetgum is fairly easy to identify, if you know what distinguishes it from other plants with star-shaped leaves (especially maples). To the right and below are a couple examples of leaf shape. Another identification feature is the spiky green seed pod that turns brown and hard in late fall. You can get a quick [...]
Tag Archives: seed
Accelerate Seed Germination
Sometimes getting seeds to grow can take many days and even weeks depending on the species you’re trying to grow. One quick and easy way to accelerate seed germination without using chemicals is simply to dampen the soil with warm water. Since plants’ metabolic rates are temperature-influenced (see ‘Cold-Blooded Plants‘), watering with warm water (not [...]
Maple Seed Deception
Maple trees produce “helicopter seeds” (more correctly known as a samara) en masse. I can still remember seeing thousands of seeds flying through the air when a good autumn breeze picked up, making it look as though it were raining maple seeds. But seeds from maple trees are fickle. Sometimes a lot of the seeds [...]
Starting from Seed
A lot of gardeners like to get a jump on the season by sowing seeds in pots indoors in early spring when it’s still too cold outside to start gardening. This is a good idea particularly for gardeners who live closer to the poles and thus have a shorter growing season. When starting a garden [...]
Creating ‘Seedless’ Fruit: the Odd-Diploidy Plant
Seedless fruit rarely occurs in nature. This makes sense, of course: Nature is in the business of creating and furthering life. The seedless fruit you will find in the grocery store is the result of an interesting breeding manipulation developed by geneticists years ago. Now for some science: Different organisms have differing numbers of copies [...]
Quick Genetic Selection
Selecting for superior genes has been and always will be essential to any type of gardening. As nature evolves your plants’ enemies (disease, insects . . .) will also naturally select superior genes for survival. As gardeners, we want to be ahead of the evolution game as much as possible. Even if you buy well-bred, [...]
Another Way to Get Your Plants to Flower or Fruit
There’s another gardening technique you can employ if phosphorus treatments don’t seem to be getting your plants to flower. Give your plants a bit of physical abuse. That’s right – smack your plants up a little bit. I know this may sound really bizarre but stay with me on this. . . . Just like [...]
Grafts vs. Seeds
Fruit trees sold by nurseries today are reproduced almost entirely by asexual means (grown from grafts of the parent tree). The reason for this is because fruit farmers want to reproduce the same characteristics of the type fruit they are growing on all their trees. In other words, a Jonagold apple from one tree needs [...]
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