The importance of plant structure
Can you explain the importance of plant structure to breeders and growers?
"The performance of a plant will depend on the interaction between the plant’s genetics and the environment it is growing in, so there is no such thing as an optimal species for all situations.
"For example open field tomatoes need a good leafy canopy to protect the fruit from being burnt by the sun. Inside a greenhouse, too much vegetative growth reduces yields and leads to pale and misshapen fruit. The plants compete for light, shading each other. There’s less air circulation (which can encourage bacterial and fungal infection), and reduced effectiveness of any spraying that might be necessary."
The pale, misshapen fruit is the result of a generally less healthy plant?
"And the fact that, like leaves, fruits are photosynthetically active. They harvest energy from sunlight, fixing it into the sugars which can later be broken down through respiration to fuel bioprocesses."
So you breed plants with less of a canopy?
"It’s more specific than that. In summer, for example, the extra sunlight encourages excessive vegetative growth so we specifically bred our summer cucumber to send out lateral shoots that naturally stop growing after a little while. These will produce fruits without overcrowding the greenhouse."
That’s what is meant by ‘self-pruning’?
"Yes, really it means they don’t need pruning."
How does your summer cucumber compare with your winter cucumber?
"Well, cucumbers perform their entire life cycle from seed to flower to seed within a single growing season so they’re perfect for creating varieties specific to seasonal weather patterns."
"Our summer cucumber also produces 3, 4, or 5 fruits per node, but in the colder months, that much fruit production could exhaust the plant, leading to yield reduction and, again, misshapen fruit. So we created a winter variety that produces 1 or 2 fruits per node."
Can you explain what nodes are?
"They are zones that are meristematically active, meaning they contain undifferentiated cells. Plant meristem cells are a bit like stem cells in animals. They can become any cell type in the organism. All new growth on a plant comes from nodes: roots, stems, lateral branches and tendrils, leaves, flowers and of course fruits."
So there are a great many factors involved in determining just how the plant structure will affect its performance.
"Oh yes, all mixed in with the sixteen micro and macro nutrients that plants need and their tolerance or resistance to bacteria, fungi, viruses, insects, temperatures and drought. This is why I said before that there is no such thing as the best plant for all situations."
And that’s why seed trials need to be done?
"Exactly. Trials need to be done in growing environments that match food producers environments. It’s also why our seeds perform so much better in realistic production environments. All our plant development is done in the relatively simple greenhouses which growers through most of the world use, rather than the perfectly controlled, air-conditioned greenhouses that most other breeders use."
For more information:
Abundant Produce
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55 Miller Street,
Pyrmont, NSW 2009,
Australia
Phone: +61 2 9571 8300
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abundantproduce.com