The daily heat goes on and hybrid trivia

 Watering every other day is a must now due to the heat and yet another #zucchini is unfertilized.

Failure to fertilize

 I am getting saddened by this and can only hope the plant lasts long enough for the flowers to do their thing. It looked so promising! There's another fruit developing and as soon as that flower opens I will see if a male flower is open and do my own fertilizing gosh darn it! The plant is pumping out tons of male flowers still so it's like 1 in 20 is female, not good odds if they don't get fertilized. I'm glad I researched why this is happening, knowledge is power in this case and at least I know it's not my fault or the soil's fault.

I also removed a smaller tomato that was behind the big one in order to give it more energy. The smaller one wasn't likely going to turn out well anyway as I discovered when I turned it over.

Damage from branches

 

Those two brown spots were caused by the fruit being wedged between two of the stalks, so the subsequent rubbing and pressure caused lesions. No great loss, there are a few others that are doing just dandy so far.

Damage happens, fruit doesn't form right, it's all part and parcel of the whole gardening gig which a lot of people just can't seem to understand.

No such thing as a perfect garden despite all the perfect pictures that you find out there. Any picture has a before and after, details that are missing from the actual photo where it was watered the day before and any imperfect leaves were pulled off. You've seen my pictures, before and after watering, before and after pruning, look for the missing details with anything that looks 'perfect'.

You are cultivating a hybrid plant that has ancestors that don't look anything like what you are growing right now.

Tomatoes; related to Deadly Nightshade

Corn: related to ancient maize which is a grass

Peppers: Tiny fruit from topical America

Modern Roses: Wild 'roses' from China

So, humans have been hybridzing/selectively growing/modifying fruit and plants further back than people realize. When you take the pollen from one plant and sprinkle it on another plant you are modifying the genes to produce something different. Aha..see what I just said there? Genetically modifying a plant to produce better production or desirable results. 

It can also be done with grafting. Taking a plant that produces good fruit but has poor roots or is susceptible to diseases and grafting it onto another similar plant so it has a stronger system to survive. 

Improved Meyer Lemon, almost all citrus and avocado trees are grafted, most 'hybrid tea' roses are grafted as well. Because humans seek better, brighter, more productive plants because we're picky and need to have more stuff.

Okay so maybe we want bigger pumpkins and more corn, and more beans, it makes sense if you're going to be feeding people with your crops.

Oh yeah and those striped roses and tulips? Originally it was discovered a particular virus had attacked the plants producing streaks in the flowers but the plant was healthy. THAT'S AMAZING! said the early growers of flowers. How can we do this for every crop we grow, everyone wants them? Guess what? Modifying an organism by introducing a virus to produce desired results.  Much science later, they figured out how to keep that trait by either pollen or tissue culture.

 

You know how orchid corsages look so perfect and every flower is so beautiful and perfect? Tissue culture. Cloning of the plants to produce exact replicas because of demand. I know, my mom and I made a trip to a orchid and rose developer in the Bay Area way back in the late 70's. Rod McLellan Nurseries who were the original creators of SuperSoil back then had a greenhouse and growing grounds that gave tours of their production process. We saw long greenhouses of red roses all staked up with long stem roses getting ready for cutting and shipping to markets all over. Then we got to see the orchid cloning labs. That was absolutely fascinating and taught me a lot about how orchids (primarily Cattleyas) were grown and then harvested for the floral industry.

So yeah, humans have been modifying plants (and animals) by selective breeding longer than any of us have been alive.

(btw Mclellan Orchids is still around but was bought by a Japanese company in 2000 for various reasons. The SuperSoil brand was bought by Scotts/Miracle Grow, like they do. Also if they haven't changed the formula for SuperSoil, it's crappy soil.)

 

One of my peeves is the monopoly of garden products by one company. SMG systematically has bought out struggling companies over the past ten to fifteen years, pulled perfectly good product off the shelves then rebranded, reformulated or sometimes just didn't produce it anymore. As much as I appreciated working for HD they have a stake in that company along with other home centers. They sell 'quality' products at a good price, sounds kind of like Walmart eh? They are monopolizing some product areas and as a result products like Schultz and others are no longer on the market, their product may be reproduced but never the same as the original.

 

So, spend the extra money, go the extra distance to shop at a local nursery with actual experts that know their stuff. I did what I could at my store and hope that the people that are left will try and educate customers as much as they can.

 

Okay, rant over, heat increasing...  almost lunch time. Be careful out there!