Six-foot zucchini? Ten-foot carrots? Are giant veggies just a photography trick, or are they real?
The happy news is that yes, they’re real! Expert horticulturists have accumulated a great wealth of knowledge about different climates and dirt conditions. They must know about the different chemical, physical and biological properties of gardens and do multiples of experiments dozens of plants. We found an incredible horticulturist, John Evans, who has accumulated over 180 first places in both quality and giant vegetable categories, with 18 State and 7 World Records.
According to John Evans: “If you could, imagine what it would be like to dig up a carrot from your garden and not knowing how big it is until the last minute, and then finding out that it’s 19 lbs. Now that’s exciting!”
John has spent many years developing fertilizers, bio-catalysts, and growing techniques to grow 76-lb cabbages (photo shown left), 20-lb carrots, 29-lb kale, 60-lb zucchini, 43-lb beets, 35-lb broccoli and cauliflowers, and 70-lb swiss chard that was over 9 feet tall and took three people to carry it to the trailer!
Here’s a video on growing giant flowers by a passionate community gardening club:
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So what makes the plants grow so large? Apart from good soil and climate conditions, there are a few tricks you can do in order to encourage growth in plants.The video above shows the effects of using gibberellic acid. So what is that stuff, anyway?
Hormones are chemicals that send messages causing changes in living things. Gibberellic acid is a hormone that makes some pretty noticeable changes. This hormone changes the RNA of plants. RNA is an important molecule that affects which proteins are produced by an organism. By changing proteins, the characteristics of the organism can be changed. In the case of Gibberellic acid, the change in RNA makes cells grow faster and longer. When added to a plant, it makes the plant grow larger than it otherwise would grow. See for yourself!
- Plant two lettuce seeds in similar soil in the same general area.
- Spray one seed with Gibberellic Acid.
- Make daily observations.
- How did the control plant (no acid) compare to the experimental plant (with acid)?
Gibberellic acid is very potent, and does occur naturally in plants to controls their development. This is a place where a little bit goes a long way. In fact, if you use only a couple of drops, you’ll see a big effect… too much and the reverse will happen (hardly any growth at all).
Gibberellic acid can do several things, including stimulate rapid growth in the root and stem and trigger mitosis in the leaves. Scientists have used gibberellic acid to start germination in dormant seeds. You’ll also find it used by farmers who need larger clusters of grapes and cherries. Since plants get ‘used to’ gibberellic acid and become less responsive to it over time, you’ll want to use only a little bit on your plants.
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