Plant Improvement

This week in class, we discussed the history of plants and plant improvement. One of the topics that was largely discussed was hybrid plants. A hybrid plant is the genetic crossing of two pure plant lines that each exhibit uniquely favorable characteristics with the goal of creating a plant that has all or most of the combined characteristics. While this may require a lot of work and extra funds to accomplish, the quality of the resulting plant and its yield are often worth the effort. An important point is that the seeds of these hybrids can not be saved for the following season, because they will not grow plants true to the qualities of the hybrid.

Now for an update on my garden! This week was spent mostly weeding, but I was able to plant a few more vegetables, including basil, cucumber,  and scallions. All of these vegetables were planted by seed, so there's not much to show yet, but here is a little cucumber plant just breaking through the soil:

Cucumber sprouting

The cucumbers were planted each a foot apart, while the basil was planted about two seeds per foot, and the scallions were crammed in every few inches.

As for my vegetables planted two weeks ago, the bean varieties have all broken ground and are coming in nicely!

Bean varieties

I also sprayed all of my visible plants with an organic pesticide designed to keep caterpillars away. This should help protect my tomato and pepper plants as they continue to take root. Take a look at how they are progressing:

Tomatoes

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