A sort of double-jointness for plant tissue.

Whiskery walrus like growth, known as adventitious roots, these can now be put into pots and grown as plants in their own right.

The process is officially termed ‘hardening off’. In these days of bootcamp this and extreme that , it’d be rebranded  ‘toughening up’.

It’s the process of taking a plant; a windowsill wuss and making an outward bound, fruiting machine out of it.  Along the way expect a few Grenadier style, hot weather, forward flops.

This is one of the Seeds of Italy plants getting used to being outside. As you can see it’s taking standing at ease to a whole new angle.

The cause: Transpiration. All plants lose water vapour.  About 95% of the water which a plant takes up through its roots, leaves through its leaves. Usually the amount of water vapour going out is adjusted in line with the amount of water being taken in. Thus ensuring the plant remains turgid. Stomata on the leaves open and close guard cells to make this adjustment.

But when plants are first outside they require time to re-regulate. Even if it’s no hotter the breeze/wind factor will be more drying for a plant than inside.

The answer – a long, cool drink. This is the same plant less than an hour later. Back on parade !

It’s time for the final turning over of all matters, soil.
I’ve checked my list from week one to see what’s still left to have a look at.

Words still with an air of mystery: Crumbly and Friable.

A Match of the Day sofa double act or something to do with soil structure?
A crumbly soil is one where the components which make up soil (minerals, organic matter and humus) combine in ‘crumbs’ of approximately 1-5mm in size. This is what is meant by the term ‘good crumb structure’. It’s the ideal growing soil structure as the size of the soil pieces – crumbs- are of a size to both support and surround the plant roots. If soil breaks up into crumbs of this size, it’s said to be friable.

Then there’s the earthy sounding Single Dig and 1 Spit.
A spit is the depth of a spade blade or measured, about 25- 30cm.
How far down to dig is measured using the spade blade as guide.
So single digging means digging to a depth of 1 spit and double digging… yes … to a depth of 2 spits.

And No Dig – does this mean leaving a spade in a dusty corner of the shed?
Only after putting in the ‘spade work’ although opinions seem to vary about how much of this should take place.
So in differing places along a scale; No- Dig involves digging upfront, getting rid of perennial weeds and incorporating in lots of organic matter to make a really good quality, deep bed. Once this is achieved, and this is the part that seems to be at the heart of No Dig, the soil structure will maintain itself and new matter is incorporated by the annual application of a  3-5cm mulch, which the worms incorporate down into the soil.

And Green Manures

The manures we looked at in week 3 are materials brought in from elsewhere and incorporated into the soil.
A green manure is different.  It’s a plant grown directly into the soil with the intention of using it, in situ, as manure. The green manure plant is grown and then, a few weeks prior to the planting of the intended vegetable crop, the green manure is dug down into the soil, changing status from plant to manure, something it needs to do in a shortish period of time to be of benefit to the incoming plant.
Green Manures are often planted in autumn, offering protection to the soil through the winter, and then dug in to improve it, come spring.

Photo by thisisbrighteyes

Not pretty.

A couple of my plants have these but as the plant didn’t seem bothered by I decided there was no reason I should be.

However I thought I should find out what they are.  Turns out they’re roots. Potential roots.  They appear above the soil.  If they were below the soil they would turn into normal roots. Tomato roots develop along the length of the stem and are known as adventitious roots and when I look back at the photo I took at the time of a young plant I can see the resemblance.

I have also seen references to them being root primordia .

So they may look like warts but no need to worry.

When did mud get complicated?

Growing tomatoes in containers I haven’t had to give much thought to it. The start of the process is a struggle, hauling 75 litre bags of compost from car to garden requires brawn but no brain but after that your mud is good to grow.

Whereas on the subject of soil there’s much more to turn over.

This is a selection words/terms that I encountered in my reading on soil:

Soil Structure, Crumbly, Friable, Bedrock, Top Soil, Sub Soil, Hard Pan, Well Rotted Manure, Compost, Fertilizers – organic and inorganic , Mulches – organic and inorganic,  Micro Organisms, Green Manures, Base Dressing, Top Dressing, Humus, Soil Conditioners, Leaf Mould, Double Dig, Single Dig, One Spit and the soil equivalent of your six numbers coming up – Good Medium Loam.

What do they all mean? Some are guessable at – however Friable, One Spit and Loam sound like a particularly bucolic firm of solicitors.

So in search of meaning I’m going to give over September Saturday Swot Shop to becoming a Woman of the Soil.

Today I’m taking a peek at what lies beneath:

In order of descent it’s: Top Soil, Sub Soil, Broken Rocks and Bedrock.
When small, top soil is the stuff you mix with water to make mud pies; bedrock the clinker that no matter how desperate you are to hug a koala or watch water swirl the other way down the plug hole, will bring to a halt your attempt to dig down to Australia.

Soil, both sub and top, is made up of tiny particles of broken and weathered rock. But to understand the difference I think of top soil as the melting point of what comes up from below and down from above! The below being a finer version of subsoil, the above being organic, decomposed matter, introduced down into the soil by earthworms, rain or of course the hard working gardener digging it in. This decayed organic matter, known as humus, as well as being rich in nutrients and good for soil structure is dark brown in colour and makes top soil darker than sub soil.

Next week I’ll look at the different types of soil and which each of them means (for the gardener as opposed to mud pie maker ).

Photo by John Kelly

A conversation the other day re tomato plants and which varieties remain true in subsequent sowings (do tomato plants grow up to resemble their mothers?) reminded me how F1, tagged onto the name of a tomato in a catalogue meant nothing to me when first selecting seeds. So I thought I’d use Saturday Swot Shop to see if I’ve now got the hang of what  it’s referring to.

F1 – what does it stand for ?

• Filial 1. Referring to a first filial generation.

First generation of ?

• A cross between two different parents. Each parent has attractive and desirable qualities and the idea is to produce a new variety which feature the best chosen qualities of each parent.
• To achieve this, pollination is controlled to ensure that the plants only cross with each other. In addition before this cross pollination happens each parent is bred many times in succession to make sure that it is only reproducing itself in an identical fashion. Once this is assured it can be referred to as a pure line.
• Two pure lines are taken and cross pollinated and they produce a new variety which is referred to as a F1 Hybrid.

What happens after that ?

• With F1 hybrids the cross pollination always has to take place between the two pure lines. An F1 hybrid can only be achieved by that controlled pollination being orchestrated by the person who has the two pure lines of the parent plants to cross .

So to get that variety I will always have to buy more seeds as opposed to saving my own seeds and growing more plants from that ?

• Yes. If you were to grow plant from seed that was sown and then saved by you the new plants will be different from the original hybrid.  They do not ‘grow true’ . What happens is that they display characteristics which belonged to more distant versions of each parent.

So a throw back as opposed to a pip off the old block !

Tomatoes like all plants need light to photosynthesize. But how much?
One of the measurements you may come across in reference to quantity of light is foot candles.

Foot candles?

• A foot candle is a quantity of light intensity.  A standard/international candle or candela is placed in the centre and the light received within a 1 foot radius of the candle is measured.

Light intensity?

• The room that you are sat in reading this probably has a light intensity of 5-10 foot candles. A kitchen brightly light with florescent tubes up to 100 foot candles and a bright sunny summers day of the type that we were promised but didn’t get, up to 10,000 foot candles. On our overcast days we’ve probably been groping around trying to light the BBQ in no more than 1,000 foot candles.

You may need to shed some more foot candles on this?

• Yes or maybe some lux ?

Lux ?

• Lux is the metric measurement for light quantity. 1 foot candle = 10.764 lux, normally converted as 1 foot candle = 10 lux.
  So 1 candle will produce 1 lumen per sq foot, at a centre distance of 1 foot . This is a foot candle.
  And 1 candle will produce 1 lumen per sq meter, at a centre distance of 1 meter. This is a Lux.

Lumen?

• Lumen is the measurement of the amount of light given out by something; in the above example, 1 candle.
  Light bulbs for example have lumen measurements. The light bulbs in today’s photos have lumen of 600 and 360.

Is there a chance we could bring the tomato back into the spotlight ?

• The connection is light intensity and photosynthesis .Tomato plants start to synthesize at around 200 foot candles and for normal growth, flowering and fruit setting they need a minimum of 500 preferably 1,000-2,000 foot candles of light.

Hmm, perhaps a long lie down in a foot candled exclusion zone and it might start to make some sense.

This Saturday Swot Shop has been a bit like a strobe light. One moment I feel I’ve the hang of how light is measured and the next I feel back in the dark again. If anyone can illuminate me further and make lighter work of explaining it than I’ve done ( and confirm the tomato requirements stats  ) I promise to throw the switch on the lighting puns!

In Saturday Swot Shop we like to get under the skin of things so the time is ripe to get under the skin of tomatoes. More specifically what turns them red (other than being planted out in a pair of underpants).

So if it’s not embarrassment what does cause a tomato to turn red?

• It’s Lycopene. Lycopene is the main carotenoid in tomato and lycopene is red in pigment. Carotenoids are phytochemicals;  naturally occuring chemical compounds, found in plants.

Carotenoid? I thought we were talking tomatoes.

• Carotenoids are nutrients present in fruit and vegetables. Lycopene is the carotenoid found in tomatoes. Lycopene is a potent antioxidant which means it is central to the process of cleaning up free radicals.
• Free radicals can damage cells, damage which can trigger disease.

So eating lots of tomatoes is good?

• Yes, although tomatoes are unusual.  Where as heating and cooking usually dissipates the nutrients available to us from fruit and vegetables, with lycopene it increases. So tomato paste and sauce although cooked have more available lycopene than fresh tomatoes.

In which case make mine a thin crust Margherita please!

I know if I like the taste of something but am not so good at discerning individual flavours.

 A wine tasting course and I recall swilling some red round a glass. 

Getting wet wool ? we were asked.  At that moment I was happy to lack the discernment to identify soggy sheep at a sniff.

However growing tomatoes is different. The angst and aspiration of a home grower deserves great flavour.

Given that it’s not going to be lambs in arm bands or burnt toast that lend flavour to tomatoes, today’s Saturday Swot Shop swills around the issue of what does.

What gives tomatoes their flavour ?

• It’s a combination of sugars and acids which determine the balance of sweet, sour and intensity of flavour.
• The most enjoyable tomato will have high sugar and relatively high acids, the least will have both low sugar and acid.
• If you pucker when you eat it’s probably because you’ve hit on a tomato high in acid and low in sugar and if all you think is so so then that’s a tomato high in sugar and low in acid.

Acids and sugars ?

• Citric acid is key. Levels increase as the fruit matures and by the time the fruit is ripe it constitutes over half the tomatoes acidity.
• It takes over from malic acid which is dominant in early growth. Malic acid is used to provide the vinegary frisson in Salt and Vinegar crisps, so for our much loved tomato, this is a good thing!
• Sugars and in tomatoes, the reducing sugars – fructose and glucose, especially fructose are the complementary part of the tomato flavour. They start to build when the tomato reaches maximum growth and the starch stored in the locular tissue starts to break down.

What influences the levels of acid and sugar ?

• Sunshine, Potassium and the physical construct of the locular and pericarp tissue.

The clouds of confusion descended after sunshine …..

• Sunshine is all about light intensity. The more sun a tomato gets when it’s growing the higher its sugar content will be.
• Potassium levels affect citric acid concentration. Too low and the citric acid will be too low.

And the locular and the pericarp ?

• The pericarp is the fleshy part of the tomato. The locular is the pulpy part, in particular the jelly like stuff around the seeds. Tomato varieties vary in how much of the total weight of the tomato either the pericarp or the locular represent.
• Why that matters to the flavour is locular tissue has much higher levels of acid than the pericarp and the pericarp has more glucose than the locular tissue.

So if you have a tomato variety which as a proportion of its weight has more locular tissue than another tomato variety then it will have more acid which means a better overall flavour.

And – too late but I’ve just thought of a new crisp flavour – Lineker’s Vinegar – Green Tomato flavour crisps !

I associate soil pH values with miniature test tube kits, filled with garden soil, a mud monochrome of the model glass lighthouses you fill with multicoloured sand from Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight.  But whilst lighthouses keep you off the rocks, soil testing kits will tell you what their ground down ancestors are made of.  And once you know the pH of your soil you will know whether Rhododendrons planted in your garden will be a dead cert or dead shrub and if Hydrangeas will favour blue or pink.

As I don’t have enough soil to put in a test tube, let alone grow things in, my understanding beyond this, is vague.  So Saturday Swot Shop today is Tomato Lover’s PDQ guide to soil pH .

What does pH actually mean ?

• Potential Hydrogen Ions.

None the wiser… How does it relate to soil ?

• Soil is either acid, alkaline or neutral. pH is measured on a scale of 1 to 14. The middle of the scale at 7, is neutral. Below 7 and it’s acid , above 7 and it’s alkaline. What’s being measured is the amount of lime (calcium ) in the soil.

Does it matter ?

• At certain levels of acidity or alkalinity some minerals cannot dissolve in water and so get ‘locked up’; held in the soil, meaning they are not available for absorption by the plant and so the plant is deprived of essential nutrients. Certain plants will thrive in one type of soil but die in another. The expression ‘lime hating’ plants covers those which grow well in acidic soil.

Can the pH value of soil be changed ?

• To make acid soil more alkaline lime is added to the soil. Increasing the acid in  alkaline soil is more difficult but sulphur is used for this purpose.

What’s the normal pH  range for soil and what’s the right soil for tomatoes ?

• Most soil is 4-8.5. Tomatoes grow best at 6.0 to 6.8, so slightly acid.

And why in pH is the p lower case and the H upper case ?

• pASS !