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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Wednesday, July 10, 2024
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Little Ketchup
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Grittyville, WA
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Entry 118 of 241 |
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Node length... John Kempf says a shorter, denser, plant will be a more productive one. That strikes me as odd. Part of this might go back to the same hormone theory as the twisting vines... If the roots are getting lots of energy, they won't signal the plant to grow taller. But for me a dense plant might be a bad thing... it might just be a phosohorus deficiency. There's some confusion possible if a well fed plant is supposed to be stout and very dark green, but a phosphorus defient plant would look similar. Meanwhile Steve Connolly's WR bushel gourd and some mean pumpkins are being grown on lanky plants. These plants probably have plenty of everything, including potassium... but maybe a bit less nitrogen. Steve's WR bushel gourd had plenty of nitrogen, too, and eventually it filled in and was a dense plant.
It has to do with gene expression/ full development of the desired part of the plant. And if you try to do it all at the same time, then maybe the growth of one part of the plant comes at the expense of another part. The growth of the pumpkin might come at the expense of the growth of the roots, or the growth of the vines might come at the expense of the growth of the flower buds.
Most of the time there's not a lot we can do to change the course of things. Even if we knew everything it would still be an intersting tug of war between the limited things we have control over, and the many things we dont.
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