PBS Forum

Your plants might be talking to you about their health and condition-

Here's a study suggesting they are communicating- we just aren't capable yet of hearing them- but other organisms (nearby plants, insects, animals, etc.) might be listening!

QuoteHighlights
•Plants emit ultrasonic airborne sounds when stressed
•The emitted sounds reveal plant type and condition
•Plant sounds can be detected and interpreted in a greenhouse setting
Summary
Stressed plants show... changes in color, smell, and shape. Yet, airborne sounds emitted by stressed plants have not been investigated before. Here we show that stressed plants emit airborne sounds that can be recorded from a distance and classified.
...
We developed machine learning models that succeeded in identifying the condition of the plants, including dehydration level and injury, based solely on the emitted sounds. These informative sounds may also be detectable by other organisms.


 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00262-3

Link to study article, found in CELL, here:
Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative

Hello Clivia miniata growers/breeders!

Help me predict the survival of some variegated Clivia miniata seedlings.
I didn't breed these, so I know little about provenance of each group of seeds.
Here is the seedling tray: 
Group 1:  (Top of the tray- in roughly two lines- ten seedlings)
These are 'regular' Clivia miniata seedlings- orange bloom, non-variegated foliage parents.  It provides a comparison, as all were germinated the same time.  This group seems well on their way to solid growth...


If you have any experience with variegated seedlings:
In the middle of the seedling tray are several germinated rows, but seedlings seem to have a failure to thrive.  I am assuming this is due to the documented Clivia variegation issue that some offspring will express variegation in albino leaves- having no or too little chlorophyl for successful photosynthesis if this is manifest in all leaves.

Are these lighter colored seedlings (yellowish leaves) in the middle of the tray doomed?  I don't know if albino leaves would be totally white or light yellow as they are showing.   The leaf growth is stunted on these lighter yellow seedlings as well- compared to the variegated seedling leaf showing stripping, adjacent.  I assume these are siblings, but cannot be sure.  Time will tell- but I'm just incredibly curious.

FWIW: These seed were sold to me by a U.S. supplier who said they were Chinese varieties of variegated Clivia miniata: including 'light of buddha,' 'LiBan Color,' 'YuanBao Jade,' and 'Painter Color' varieties.

Hello all!

I'm doing some pollen collecting and saving from a modern hybrid Hippeastrum. 
Basically, I'm holding a small reclosable plastic bag (Zip-Lock snack bag) open, and under the stamens, which I then cut  and they (mostly) fall into the bag.  I know I could use more care with a pair of tweezers and my scissors.

Questions:
1) is the poly bag a good way to store this pollen in the freezer or fridge?  I'm wondering if a glassine envelope, or folded wax paper might have been a better option to help me later collect the pollen for use.  I'm wondering if the pollen is attracted to the plastic sides of the bag making later removal with my brush or cotton swab difficult.


^{My stamen/pollen storage baggie}

2) Which? Is the freezer or a fridge the best storage for a few weeks to a month- for Hippeastrum specifically, and maybe all bulb flowers generally?
3) Do you worry about moisture in storage?  Do you worry about to much moisture, or to little?  I.E. do you put the pollen bag in another sealed container (larger poly bag?) with a desiccant pack, or rice, powdered milk, etc. which might have a similar water absorbing effect, to prevent moisture spoilage?  Do you worry about dehydration of the pollen?  I know there is water vapor transfer through plastic bags.
4) Do you instead favor the cotton swab collection method?  I.E. use the cotton swab to remove the pollen now while still on the flower, then just put the cotton swabs in the bag to store, then use those same swabs to pollenate the next flower?
5) What is the best AGE of pollen when collecting it for short-term storage?  I'm assuming shortly after flower opening.  Some have said to pry open a flower and take the pollen then just before flower opening, but some hippeastrum have the stamen sheathed.

I'm a 'no worries' kind of gardener but would love to hear real world input from other professional or hobbyist hybridizers.

I confess I know this has been discussed in great length, but a search of the archives wasn't pulling up much for me.

Any collection/storage ideas?

GMO purple tomato seeds- Now for sale to home gardeners in the U.S.A.  Not my creation, and it's not me selling them!  But...
Would you?  Could you?
I know I've been eating modern GMO corn for 20-30 years in the U.S. 

see a news article here:
Gardeners can now grow a genetically modified purple tomato made with snapdragon DNA

QuoteMartin isolated the gene in the snapdragon flower that turned on and off the purple color. Next she took the gene and inserted it into the bacteria. The tomato could then take in the foreign genetic material and express this new gene.

It's curious that the EU has just been looking at their longstanding GMO regulations, and with the advent of the simpler gene-editing tech which really just exploded in use over the last decade, -everything from plants to vaccines to cancer treatments- They seem to think they are missing the boat!

European Parliament votes to ease regulation of gene-edited crops
Move is a major victory for biotechnology, but debate remains over patents and labels

QuoteEU-SAGE began to advocate for regulatory reform in 2018, when the European Court of Justice ruled that plants created with the genome editor CRISPR and similar methods that alter existing DNA—referred to as "new genomic technologies" (NGTs)—should be considered genetically modified organisms (GMOs) under EU law. Researchers argued that gene-edited crops should be exempt because unlike transgenic plants created by introducing foreign genes, they just have tweaks to their natural genes.

Of course, the Purple Tomato then would be gene-insertion (transgenic) and not the newer NGT'S using tech like CRISPR. 
Both of those GMO methods are much, much newer than the "Radiation mutation breeding" that should have been flagged as GMO.  Thats low-tech, and its been genetically modifying plants for 100 years, but still isn't treated as GMO by many.  (yeah, and I know somebody will point out nature has / is using transgenic methods even with us- making it perhaps the oldest GMO in existence...)

I'm no scientist, but... I might just give those tomatoes a try.
Your thoughts?

ken

Greetings!
ID please!

This tulip has naturalized at my parents zone 7 USA garden, and it was already established in a bed when they bought the house 60 years ago.  While I've bought many tulips over the years, none has truly survived and thrived for decades like this one.

Any ID for it?  It blooms now (early-mid season- with the daffodils and apricots) and grows in clumps about 10"  tall.  It does produce viable seeds, but I'm not sure if it is reseeding or increasing by offsets. 

There is a red version, similar in every way except color....  blooming a week or two later.
I'll collect any seeds they make this spring and grow them out to start a bed of my own.

Thanks in advance for your ideas.
Ken

 
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