Blogspot - Interia Dezain

This week the majority of the tomatoes from the Polyculture Market Garden Study   had cracks around the tops or along the sides. We weighed out 6.100 kg of tomatoes in good condition and  16.325 kg of split tomatoes, ok for preserving in jars but not suitable for market. A further 2.925 kg of tomatoes were in poor condition only fit for the pig and chickens who did not seem to mind at all.    The tomatoes in our 9 yr old residential garden also suffered although not as badly.       So why have our tomatoes cracked up this week ? Here's some info on  tomato cracking and how to deal with it in the ecological garden. What is cracking?   Cracking is the splitting of the epidermis around the calyx or stem scar (top of the tomato). There are two types of fruit cracking in tomatoes. (a) Concentric cracking, which is a splitting of the epidermis in circular patterns around the stem scar.  Cultivar 'Black Krim' shows high susceptibility both...

What are C4 plants? Basically they are plants that undertake photosynthesis in a different way enabling them to continue to grow during hot and dry conditions. To better understand this lets quickly recap on photosynthesis. All plants require carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order for photosynthesis to occur and plants obtain this carbon dioxide via tiny openings on the underside of the plant leaf, these tiny openings are called stomata. The stomata also provide the exit of  H 2 O  from the plant. When soil water resources are low small openings usually on the underside of the leaves called the stomata close to reduce the loss of water from the plant. This also reduces the incoming carbon dioxide as plants absorb CO2 through these same stomata. Without C02 plants cannot photosynthesis and growth halts.  When a plant is wilting it has reached this point. Some plants have adapted to overcome this and one particular group of grasses and tropical plants, the C4 plants, ...