Archive for July, 2009

Tomatoes are harvested for 3-4 months in a year. If it is wanted to process tomatoes after the harvesting season how should tomatoes be stored for industrial purposes?(for paste or sauce production) Can they be freezed?

They are frozen.

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Both Trees and small plants evolved flowers. My question is which came first, the tree or the flower. If trees evolved first, then I would expect to see no flowers on trees at all, or flowers that are dramatically different from those in plants. If plants evolved flowers before trees, then I would expect to see all, or most, trees to have bright colorful flowers. So how is it that only a few trees have flowers, but small plants have flowers as well?
I am not asking to prove a religious point. I am honestly asking for curiosity sake.

Flowers could have evolved more than once. Comparing the genomes of plants has inclined many to this opinion. If they have multiple origins then more than one of the current theories may be correct. The one thing they have in common is that the smaller plants or understory trees where the first to develop a symbiotic relationship with insects rather than just rely on wind. Tall canopy trees like the Progymnosperm Archaeopteris or the true conifers relied on wind more easily since with height the pollen could travel farther.

Paleoherb or the ‘sneaky herb’ theory suggests smaller herbs or even grasses started it all. The plants began with separate single sex (dioecious) plants. These have the oldest known fossil as evidence. A 120 million year old member of the pepper family, a Piperaceae. The small plants were weedy, fast growing colonizers looking for disturbed soil. They came to this open habitat then had to find each other over longer distances to mate. Large open habitats drove the shift to grow floral structures to attracts insects as aids in pollination. So flowers came as an adaptation to large open spaces to ensure sexual reproduction at long distances between single sexed flowers.

However another of the theories, supported by some molecular studies, is the Woody Magnoliid or the Euanthial theory that says small trees or woody shrubs (magnolia-like plants) with cone-like flowers are the common ancestors. This has the insect pollination syndrome as the driving force rather than habitat.
Here it is suggested the exposed female gamete of the conifer’s cone was gradually enfolded by an increasingly protective structure. The structure became the plant’s ovary eventually.
The female gamete is exposed once the cone’s scales open for pollination and is good food for foraging insects. If the cone developed a cupped shape around the female gametophyte there was more protection but pollen was not blocked from entering with the wind. The more the insects became involved in the pollen delivery process the more enclosed the female gamete could become. Insects bearing the pollen could crawl into where the female gamete was when wind failed to push the male gamete in.
These were shrubby, short, under story trees with broad leaves to catch light penetrating the canopy of archaeopteris and true conifers.

True flowering trees evolved from the first flowering plants. Just as Insect diversity increased dramatically following the origin of the flowering plants so the plants themselves adapted to every possible niche.

http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Angiosperms/coevolution.htm

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Having recently moved to Texas from the midwest, I have no clue how to landscape our yard. What types of plants, shrubs,flowers etc grow best down here. Obviously they need to be heat and humidity hearty, but also want low maintainence as I do NOT have a green thumb. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Impatiens, hostas, azalias, ferns
ask your local store…or look on the tab that comes with the plant
always buy native plants…the ones you will need for texas will have to be drought tollerant

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How many flowers does a tulip plant produce??

I am planning to grow tulips in my garden. The flowers look beautiful but I have really not seen a second flower growing (after the first flower dies or breaks). I want to know how it works. After the first flower blossoms and dries up, do more flowers grow on it one after the other or the plant then is a total waste??

The tulip bulb will only produce one flower per year. There is a trick to it and it’s important that you follow these steps: once your tulip flowers have faded, snap off the flower stem BUT leave the foliage/leaves to die back naturally. It’s not pretty, but they turn yellow and then brown. That helps the bulb store energy for next years tulip blooms.

If you purchased a tulip that naturalizes (it will tell yon on the bag if this tulip naturalizes), the tulip bulbs will grow "babies" giving you more flowers next year. The flowers are greatly increased if you divide the bulbs every 2-3 years. Once you see the bulbs emerge, fertilize with a bulb fertilizer and fertilize again once the foliage dies away in late Spring.

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No experience with gardening!! I just bought a house with a small (4′ x 3′) garden in the backyard. Right now the garden is empty but I hope to get some flowers & bushes in soon. Do I need to separate the garden from the surrounding grass with some sort of barrier so they don’t grow into each other? Or will the roots of the plants keep each other from overgrowing? Secondly, I am looking for a hardy ground-covering type plant that grows with minimal care and perhaps has some nice flowers. Any suggestions?

If it was me I’d want to put in a barrier to prevent the grass from constantly encroaching on the garden. The ditch and landscape timbers can work, but more effective barriers would be:

1) tear off the sod around the garden spot (about a foot width) and a little deeper than just the sod. Then line with plastic (heavy duty plastic garbage bags work just fine, make sure to do a good job of overlapping the plastic. Then fill with rock…I find that works really well for many years

2) find a good edging… find something that will go down into the ground about 8inches. Don’t get the 4" stuff…it’s just not enough. Find any kind of edging or material that will let you put a wall down into the ground about 8" and that should prevent things from going into your garden.

As another poster said, 4′ x 3′ is a very small garden…you will not be able to do much with it. Most plants get big fast! :)

Have fun!

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