Blog du Wren

Plants Grow

Back in May, I embarked on a little experiment. I planted oats (remember?). The skeptical among you might be saying to yourselves, "That doesn't sound like much of an experiment." To that I say, "Please save your questions until I'm finished."* The premise of my experiment was this: plants grow. That's what they are programmed to do. All this micro-managing that we impose on our growing of plants helps increase yield, allows us to grow plants not well-suited for our climate, etc. but my theory is that it isn't necessary. If you put some seeds in the ground and walk away, they will grow.

I'm pleased to report that my oats did just that. Despite having one of the longest rain-less periods in years, my oats, which I didn't weed, water, or fertilize, grew just fine. Had I done any of the above, I'm sure they would have grown better, but without doing anything, I still produced a yield. And while I'm sure this plant-and-walk-away method won't work for every crop, it works for oats here in the Northwest.

This concept, that plants grow, really makes me happy for some reason. It reminds me that many things in life are often much simpler than we are taught. It makes food production accessible to me, even though I may not be willing to devote 2 hours every other day to its pursuit. It reinforces that biology hasn't been completely reversed with all our fancy cross-breeding and specializations. Basically, I just think it is neat.

Now what to do with the oats? Stay tuned and you will see.

Thursday October 8 2009

File under: food, misc

Toggle Comments (5)

comment?

on Thu 08th Oct, 2009 11:30 pm PDT Horge said:
That is kind of interesting when you stop to think about it. This could be the start of a movement... Though I don't suggest trying to make it a process more like nature (i.e. you taking on the role of a bird that eats some seeds and then "deposits" them in a field while flying by...)
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on Fri 09th Oct, 2009 06:36 am PDT Saxtor said:
What to do with the oats? The solution is obvious.
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on Fri 09th Oct, 2009 06:40 am PDT Wren said:
Oats to oatmeal is the problem. It is WAAAAAAY more complicated than you might think.
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on Mon 12th Oct, 2009 03:05 am PDT Dave said:
I'm curious, Wren, did you encounter any deer or elk problems with your oats?
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on Mon 12th Oct, 2009 05:17 pm PDT cardboard said:
"plants are not couches" you can use that quote if you would like to buddy, it works great for explaining to people the whole plants growing concept.
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