Re: Question (Test)
- Subject: Re: Question (Test)
- From: J*@aol.com
- Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 20:33:50 EST
This is a test to see if this message is wrapping at the right margin...
--John
______________________
Bill, I would be surprised if there was that much communication between plant
and scape. Over the past month I've been experimenting with numerous cut
scapes in sugar water and have been amazed at how 'normally' both buds and
pods develop without any connection to the plant. Bud 'sets' open in
synchronicity at night, pods form, seeds develop...
It's almost as if the scape is just a straw through which buds/pods derive
sugars and water. When a bud or pod stops 'sucking through the straw' (for
whatever reason), it withers. Often the scape also withers from the top down
to the uppermost pod still actively drawing nourishment through the scape. I
wonder if KR simply has faulty genes for developing seed pods and the scape
withers because no nutrients are being drawn up through the scape... and
gravity causes the top portion to dry out first. Speculation sure is fun,
ain't it? ; )
Have you ever tried a cut KR scape with pods in sugar water? If pods
developed normally, it might suggest that the plant is aborting the entire
scape for some reason.
--John Christensen
Ann Arbor, MI, Zone 5
Bill wrote: <<The problem with KR doesn't lie in failure to set pods, I've
done this repeatedly with hand-pollenation. What happens is that the scape
dies back before the pods mature. I think in normal plants the pods that are
developing viable seed let out some kind of hormonal signal that "tells" the
plant not to abort the scape. In KR, this seems to be missing, so that even
though viable seed is developing in more than one pod, the scape just starts
turning brown from the top down soon after it ceases flowering.>>
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