More tomatoes!

While my lab testing (wooo, thesis work) is on hold, and I try not to freak out about graduating every 3rd hour, I thought I'd post how the little guys are doing. I'll end this one with a plant quiz! If you're local, you'll win a tomato seedling of your very own!

First up: The tomatoes. On top are the seedlings we were just given last week (aren't they cute!). I think they're happy to have outside light as they have started to put out their true leaves. In just a couple days they might start to look like their older, yet same height, tomato siblings.

Tomato seedlings during the first week of April

Why are my younger seedlings as tall as my older ones, but more spindly? 

Plants have a hormone called auxin that's broken down by the sun, or at least negatively phototactic, meaning it runs away from the sunny side of the plant (plant people forgive me, I've forgotten which).  Since auxin is a growth hormone, wherever there isn't enough light, it persists and the plants grow.  There's an evolutionary advantage to this.  

It's a bit of a crap shoot being a plant and if you grow up in a place where there is little light, there's little chance of survival.  So the mechanism of having a growth hormone active in the absence of light means that a seedling in the dark will grow tall, fast.  This gives it an advantage IF it can find light before it becomes that funny yellow color and gets to tall and thin such that it falls over.  

See how much thinner and taller these little guys are? The power of plant hormones!

This is also how sunflowers follow the sun!  The auxins are only present on the dark side of the sunflower which make that side elongate.  One side of the sunflower is now longer than the other and it will lean towards the shorter side--where the sun is!    

Tomato seedling leaning

It's pretty cool, sunflowers don't reach for the sun, they elongate on the opposite side of the sun!    Who'da thunkit?    The next time you turn your plants that are "reaching for the sun" near a window.  Think about auxins!

I'll post a little bit more plant science when I transplant (things like The Scotts Co. 100645 Miracle-Gro Fast Root Dry Powder Rooting Hormone Plant Food and what's in these kinds of things to make them work).  

Tomatoes do some pretty cool stuff.  Betcha may not have thought about all this science in your garden!  Okay, maybe you did, but it's still cool!  

Okay, as promised, here's the MYSTERY PLANT of the day/week/month (whenever I update): 

Mystery Plant of the Day/Week...whenever.  Inflorescence close-up  (pssst. it's a leafless flowering stem)

Better view of the mystery plant as a whole

 If it's a real stumper, I'll have a clue later on.

Post your guess for the Mystery Plant below!  (Guesses on facebook won't get you the baby tomato plant!)