Copyright © 2008-2018 BioBased.US - All content including, without limitation, text, images, media files, videos, software, and source code is subject to copyright protection and may not be used except with the written permission.


Examing Plant Tissues in Plants after Plant Tonic Treatments and Why by Thomas Giannou


I'll try to articulate this as best I can. I am not a biologist so my descriptions may seem a little crude. But perhaps this will give others ideas about what to specifically measure.

Better plant development will show up in a number of different ways:

1). Larger and thicker sizes of various plant organs; more chlorophyll is tied to higher brix levels and an improved ability of the plant to perform better in the shade.

2). Higher resistance to drought and cold conditions are tied to higher brix levels

3). Hgher yields with more stored energy (higher brix and starch content) is tied to the quality of the harvested crop and also to the ability to do better the next year

4). Higher brix plants will have better mineral and vitamin content; resistance to transplant shock is tied to a larger xylem plumbing system and thicker and more uniform epidermis layers

5). Hgher seed counts and larger seed sizes are tied to better plant development the next year because of more stored energy in that seed

6). Higher brix levels and more stored energy will result in an increase in aromas and quality of herbs.

If new plants are started from cuttings with more stored energy present in those cuttings, those plants will develop better root systems. When plants go dormant, how much more stored energy is present in the treated plants?

All this is attempting to do is note the differences between treated and untreated plants.

1. How much more chlorophyll is in the treated plants for a given leaf area?

2. How much more leaf size increase is in the treated plants?

3. Compare the thickness and uniformity of cells between the treated plants and untreated plants in the epidermis layers. Are the treated plant layers thicker and more uniform?

4. Compare the thickness and width of the phloem sieve tubes between treated and untreated plants. This structure carries nutrients from the leaves all over the plants. Larger leaf size with more chlorophyll will generate more food for the plants. pH and brix level measurements should show better performance in treated plants. Plant juices are a mixture of what is made in the leaves and the mineral content of the xylem tubes.

5. Compare the thickness and average tube size in the xylem tissues. Are the xylem tissues thicker with more tubes present and more larger sized tubes present in the xylem tissues? How much more water is present in those tissues? If the treated plants have thicker xylem tissues and more xylem tubes, then there's more water with minerals present coming up from the roots to be supplied all over the plants. Can they measure the pressure in the xylem system? As the xylem vascular system holds more volumes of water, the plant can then be more resistant to transplant shock and less wilting will take place upon transplanting.

6. Measure the drought resistance of the treated and untreated plants. This has to do with how long does it take to stress the plant so significant reductions in water take place in the xylem tissues. How long at what temperatures does it take for the plants to dry out when water is withheld? Hopefully, leaves taken from the treated plants will take much longer to dry out when detached from the plants because they have thicker outer layers of cells and more water present in their vascular systems.

7. Measure the drought recovery time of the treated and untreated plants. If the treated plants have thicker xylem tissues and more of the larger sized xylem tubes, they will recover faster from drought conditions. They will wilt but will not totally dry out and they will recover (build up full xylem pressure) faster than the untreated plants. With more water and higher brix levels in plant juices, there will be much more resistance to both high and low temperatures. There will be much higher resistance to drought conditions and to damage from freezing temperatures.

8. Do fruit trees sprayed one time with the product before bud break have a much higher resistance to frost damage when they are in full bloom and late frosts occur? Check the brix levels in those situations and they should be higher in the treated plants. Higher brix levels during frost conditions will indicate better frost protection.

9. Look at seed counts in fruit and seed sizes in ripened fruit. Increased seed germination counts of seeds in the fruit indicate higher yield potential and larger seed sizes indicate more stored energy present. Higher brix levels and higher starch content indicate much more energy stored in the plant.

10. There are a variety of phytochemicals produced and harvested from plants. How is the volume and quality of the phytochemicals influenced in the treated vs. untreated plants. Herbs are often a good source to study for improvements in odor intensities and phytochemical increases. Phytochemicals are harvested from a variety of different plants. How do the quantities and qualities of those phytochemicals change in the treated plants?

11. Higher chlorophyll presence in treated plants is often associated with the enhanced development of other pigments in plants. Better pigment development is often tied to more vitamin presence. How much more vitamin presence is found in the treated plants over the untreated plants?

12. It would be interesting to show that with higher brix level development in plants there is also higher vitamin, nutrients, minerals, and phytochemicals and chlorophyll present. Chart the presence of the vitamins, mineral nutrients, stored energy presence, phytochemical increases, etc., to the plant brix levels. You may then see a correlation of all those variables that are desirable to have to specific brix levels in a given plant. Brix is a lot easier to measure and if those correlations hold true, the farmer can easily estimate how much of those components are present in his plants based upon specific brix readings.

13. Look at after harvest spoilage between treated and untreated plants. You may find significant leverage in this area if you are growing high brix plants that refuse to spoil for lengthy periods of time. Cutting spoilage losses in the distribution chain can mean huge dollar savings. Talk about leverage capability!!

14. Lastly, and this one is harder to get a handle on... what are the reduced medical costs associated with eating plants much higher in nutrient value? Or put a value on people not getting sick because they are eating food that is much higher in vitamin and mineral content. What is the value of productivity gains because absenteeism is dropped due to a decrease in illness in the population that is eating rice or wheat or veggies or fruits, etc., that have much higher nutrient content and are imparting a wide range impact on the performance and quality of life improvements for a lot of people.

I realize this is not plant tissue analysis but the real value of a product that is a main food item can very well have a major societal impact across a wide range of professions. If you double or triple the nutrient value and content of the food people eat, the impact on a society can and should be very interesting to study. What do you think the leverage number of profit to cost will be with all of this happening?

Well, I think I've given you enough information that would get the wheels spinning in a biologists brain about a great number of different things to look at in a variety of plants. Perhaps this will inspire others to think of specific things to measure or look at and document the cause - effect of using your product on plants.

What I have found with our own products for example, is that the profit to cost ratio often has a high number which indicates there's a lot of leverage for the investment in buying and using our products. Expressing and measuring plant improvements should also be tied to how much more those plants are worth as opposed to the cost of your product. The higher the plant component values go, the more leverage that is offered by using your product. So, all those measurements of plant improvements need to be transformed into economic values so a grower can better understand the economic value increases that are achievable with the investment in your product's use (product cost, labor and equipment) on their plants increased production capabilities.

This may start out as something like tissue analysis, but it resolves down to economic impact on and from a crop influenced by a product.

Thomas Giannou, http://www.tandjenterprises.com