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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how does the plant get used to it???
what are the effects
I would like to try this with some columbine.
Wow, never heard of this before. Sounds great for a big family like ours. I am concerned about how we are affected from eating plants grown with this. I would want to research this if possible.
wow!
Gibberellic Acid (GA) was discovered in Japan in 1935. Farmers noticed that some rice plants were becoming so large they died because they couldn’t support their own weight. It was determined that the plants had been infected with a pathogen that caused an unusually high amount of a certain hormone. Since the scientific name for the pathogen in question was Gibberella fujikuroi, the name gibberellic acid as the name of the hormone was born. Of course, now GA can be used for many positive purposes. (See if you can do some research and find other examples of pathogens that are now used to benefit people.) GA is commonly used on foods we eat. One of the most common places to find it is on grapes. There is no evidence that GA causes problems in people who eat it, but there are some who feel that we shouldn’t eat foods without knowing what was done to grow them. What do you think? You may get a chance to weigh in soon. In California, where I live, there is going to be a ballot measure this November that would require any genetically modified food (remember that GA changes RNA – that’s a genetic modification) to be labeled so people could decide if they wanted to buy it or not.
When and how was this hormone discoverd? Has the nutrient content of these plant been tested? Are humans able to eat these plants safely? 🙂
yes it would maybe if we ate it we would grow and pretty much be like godzilla! RAWR!!! lol
Not at this time, since there’s been no conclusive studies or research done on the effects of humans ingesting the growth hormones… but it would be cool to eat a 10-foot tall carrot, wouldn’t it?
I wonder if you can do it to prosessed food…