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It's strange
It has always struck me as strange that some young plants can take
frost, snow etc when only just emerged from the ground, whilst when they are mature the first frost will kill them, I am thinking of plants like sweet peas. David Hill Abacus Nurseries |
It's strange
Dave Hill wrote:
: It has always struck me as strange that some young plants can take : frost, snow etc when only just emerged from the ground, whilst when : they are mature the first frost will kill them, : I am thinking of plants like sweet peas. : : David Hill : Abacus Nurseries Not to mention rhubarb which amazes me for precisely the same reason |
It's strange
On 21 Mar, 18:02, "Dave Hill" wrote:
It has always struck me as strange that some young plants can take frost, snow etc when only just emerged from the ground, whilst when they are mature the first frost will kill them, I am thinking of plants like sweet peas. David Hill Abacus Nurseries This is something I noticed many years ago. Now I'm retired and back to being an amateur gardener with no greenhouse I'm experimenting a lot this year with rapid hardening off of barely germinated seedlings and so far it's working quite well with January sown cabbages & caulis and Sweet peas (the sweet peas and broad beans would have been done in autumn if I'd had the plot at that time; Feb sown peas, lettuce, spring onions, broad beans etc. This observation of David's is the reason why autumn sown broad beans are better sown in November than in September or October The new head gardener here is scaling down the vegetable production so I've 'inherited' for my own use one of the veg plots I used to cultivate at work, now to all intents and purposes I'm an amateur allotmenteer, which is where I came in some fifty years ago ;-) |
It's strange
In message .com, Dave
Hill writes It has always struck me as strange that some young plants can take frost, snow etc when only just emerged from the ground, whilst when they are mature the first frost will kill them, I am thinking of plants like sweet peas. David Hill Abacus Nurseries If you'll pardon an "evolutionary just-so story", this seems quite readily explainable. If we consider annual plants, if they grow in an environment where frosts are regular occurrences then seedlings which are not frost tolerant are going to be strongly selected against. At the other end of the season, frost sensitivity is not so strongly selected against (say a loss of 10% potential seed production, rather than 100%). As frost resistance has metabolic costs it may well be that frost resistance is beneficial to seedlings, but not to adult plants, as frost-sensitive plants may outcompete by producing a heavier crop of seeds before the frosts arrive. I've noticed that with some pauciennial plants that they are more frost hardy in their first winter than in their second winter, sometimes behaving a biennials (except for a light seed crop in the first year), or that their hardiness in their first winter depends on whether they flower in their first summer. -- Stewart Robert Hinsley |
It's strange
"Dave Hill" wrote in message oups.com... It has always struck me as strange that some young plants can take frost, snow etc when only just emerged from the ground, whilst when they are mature the first frost will kill them, I am thinking of plants like sweet peas. David Hill Abacus Nurseries It's presumably a biochemical response - not one I'd thought of before - so thank you for giving me something else to ponder over :-) It would appear than in spring, the cold response is to strengthen and slow growth, while in autumn, the same stimuli promotes decay. I'm sure research has been done on trees in the autumn to see what prompts leaf drop - i.e. which set of chemicals. Very interesting...... Chris S |
It's strange
On 22 Mar, 00:47, "Chris S"
wrote: "Dave Hill" wrote in message oups.com... It has always struck me as strange that some young plants can take frost, snow etc when only just emerged from the ground, whilst when they are mature the first frost will kill them, I am thinking of plants like sweet peas. David Hill Abacus Nurseries It's presumably a biochemical response - not one I'd thought of before - so thank you for giving me something else to ponder over :-) It would appear than in spring, the cold response is to strengthen and slow growth, while in autumn, the same stimuli promotes decay. I'm sure research has been done on trees in the autumn to see what prompts leaf drop - i.e. which set of chemicals. Very interesting...... Chris S The chemistry of leaf drop has been well researched but don't take it for granted that all aspects of plant metabolism have been well studied. Far from it, our understanding of plants is still very sketchy compared with that of animals. Frinstance it's a fairly recent finding that plants give off a small but measurable amounts of methane. Why wasn't this discovered long ago? Because no one dreamt that this could happen so nobody looked - simple as that. The amount involved is not significant in global warming so please don't stop planting things. |
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