Winter gardening-A new approach in Finland

Urban gardening has been and still a hot topic in many western countries where farmer population is showing a declining trend. Even in a country like China there are suburban gardens created on a cooperative principles where urbanites can invest on a small plot, few kilometers from the city and such cooperatives are offering its urban members an opportunity to visit during the week ends to do some gardening operations themselves to feel the thrill of being a "part time farmer"! Added to this the members have the luxury to have freshly harvested produce raised without using any chemicals. While such options can be understandable what will an urbanite in a country like Finland do when most of the time the weather is hostile being too cold to raise any crops. Here comes a new initiative from an entrepreneurial pioneer for growing a few crops with no soil needed at all. This is a welcome news worth pursuing for people in tropical countries who are novices in cold climate gardening. Here is a source from which further information can be gleaned. 

"Harsh, cold winters and scarce arable land make growing crops a challenge in Finland. A team of entrepreneurs hailing from the icy nordic nation believe this gives them a certain authority when it comes to growing crops indoors. Launched on Indiegogo yesterday, the team's Plantui Plantation hydroponic smart garden is aimed at giving urban green thumbs the capability to raise almost any kind of plant indoors, up two meters (6.6 ft) in height. Smart gardens and automated growing are not a new concept. Back in May we reviewed the Click and Grow Smart Herb Garden, while other efforts include the MEG Greenhouse and the Edyn monitoring system for the outdoors. Even Plantui itself is not new to the blossoming world of in-house agriculture, with its Smart Garden, the Plantation's predecessor, hitting the market in parts of Europe last year. The original Plantui Smart Gardens are soil-free capsules that use intelligent lighting and watering systems to raise plants through the germination, seedling and harvesting stages. Depending on the progress of the plant, 18 LED lights adjust in intensity and the irrigation feeds various amounts of water to the roots. The company says these methods replicate those used in professional Finnish greenhouses. The latest iteration, the Plantui Plantation, takes this concept and scales it up to accommodate a wider range of plants. The new version measures 45 cm (17.7 in) in diameter with an adjustable height of 28 to 200 cm (11 to 78 in), and can host crops including tomatoes, chillies, peppers and cucumbers. Also improved is the level of control over the maturation of the plants. While the device can automatically adjust water and light according to the plant's growth, it allows the user to manipulate these settings to shape the final product. The company points to the ability of different parts of the light spectrum to affect the taste and height of the harvested plants. Favoring a red spectrum over blue, for example, might induce mild, intense or peppery flavors, while red will give rise to taller plants. The Plantui Plantation is powered by a wall outlet and is said to use around 120 kWh of energy per year. Twelve plants can be grown in each of the capsules, with the estimated time to harvest ranging from 35 days for a crop of bok choy to 150 days for four chilli plants. Early pledges of US$250 will see a Plantui Plantation shipped your way in March 2015, along with 16 types of seedlings including pok choy, thai basil, coriander and tomato. For this to eventuate, the team will need to reach its somewhat lofty fundraising goal of $500,000 and have the rest of its campaign go as planned."

Though limited in its scale of operation the new technology requiring limited space is based on hydroponics and green house facilities with temperature and light control provisions to raise different crops. Its convenience and ease of operation can be gauged from the fact that ready capsules are available with designs suiting different crops. All one has to do is order for these capsules along with the seeds depending on what is to be grown. Low requirement of energy, hardly 120 units of electricity from a wall outlet for the entire year is indeed remarkable. Imagine one's ability to raise a bok choy crop in 35 days and the ease with which the crop can be harvested as when needed in the kitchen! Such novel ways of crop raising must be introduced in India also where temperature drop is phenomenal between November and February each year across most of northern India..    

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE PLANT "TALK"-

When some reports claiming that Cows could yield more milk if piped music is provided in their stable, there were not many takers. Similarly in an American Farm rearing more than 100 cows, each one is named individually and it was claimed that they respond to their respective names when called. There are birds which are known to "talk" largely mimicking what their masters say. Whether animals can talk to each other in a way man does not understand is a subject matter of debate though they do have feelings and societal bonding which are not doubted. What about plants? Do they talk to each other? Do they understand human gestures? Does a plant loving farmer gets more yield of crops than that produced in a mechanized farm? These are questions for which there is no conclusive answer. According to a recent report, plants do communicate among themselves that is reflected in the positive growth of some of them. This has been demonstrated with reference to Basil, a herb which was found to ensure better growth of Chilli plant when the latter is planted nearby. Here is a take on this amazing finding by a group of scientists in Australia.  

"Plants may be able to 'talk' to each other say researchers from the University of Western Australia after carrying out experiments in which two types of plants were completely separated from each other and yet one appeared to influence the other. Basil, known and revered in India as 'tulsi', is well known to have a beneficial effect on neighboring plants. This is because it gives out some organic volatile substances that inhibit the growth of some weeds. Its roots retain moisture longer and so help the neighboring plants. Earlier research had established that like basil, many plants 'communicate' to other plants by chemicals, touch or shade giving. But in this latest research by Monica Gagliano and Michael Renton, published on line in the scientific journal BMC Ecology, it was shown that basil plants could influence chili plants in a positive way even after they were completely separated from each other by a vacuum barrier. The researchers said that since chemical, touch or light communication was ruled out, the possibility of 'acoustic' signals, that is, sound was strongly suggested. They suggested that 'nanomechanical oscillations of various components in the cytoskeleton can produce a spectrum of vibrations' communicating to other plants necessary information. In the experiments, chili seeds were planted surrounding a basil plant which was enclosed in a double walled box with vacuum between the two walls. The whole set of plants was further enclosed in a similar double walled vacuumed box to block any outside interference. It was discovered that chili seeds planted next to the basil plant germinated faster than those which did not have the good neighbor. This happened irrespective of whether the basil plant was masked (kept in the box) or open (no box)."

The scientists who laid out the experiments did achieve better growth for Chiili plants planted near the Basil plant even when they were insulated from each other. However their interpretation is subject to different conclusions by different people. If these findings are scientifically valid, it may open up a whole field of agronomy which can identify pairing of plants with good neighborly relations and which in turn can increase productivity of plant foods dramatically. As the scientific basis of the finding is still to be ascertained beyond any doubt, further work of collaborative and interdisciplinary nature may be necessary for arriving at unanimity. Many people believe that plant kingdom holds lot of surprises for mankind and even a fraction of their potential is not tapped yet!  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com