Re: [Biofuel] Annuals converted into perennials
Keith, Maybe wheat was a bad crop to suggest since I've never personally grown it. And I've never heard of the Broadbalk field. (I'll have to look that up.) It was just the first thing to pop into my head since it's such a staple crop. Also using the word key was not the best choice of words on my part. It would be better described as a piece to a puzzle. However I am aware of many of the things that need to be done to help avoid disease and pests. Such as, planting to attract beneficial insects, composting, heirloom seeds, diversity, companion planting, trap crops and crop rotation. I even take it a couple steps further by raising worms, double digging and bio-intensive planting to create mini-climates. While I now practice all of the above, in my younger and less informed years (when I took up gardening as a hobby) I planted the same crops in the same spots for years. Sure enough, I eventually got plagued with many of the diseases and pests that tend to burrow into the soil. After deciding to do some research and stop doing things willy-nilly I learned about crop rotation. After rotating the crops many of the diseases and a lot less of the pests were present. Some completely disappeared. I'd be interested to know if the Broadbalk field was old growth forest before it was planted in wheat. It's hard for me to understand how wheat could grow for 120 years with no ferts or fodder unless there was a huge abundance of nutrients built up in the soil. Now back on topic. While I agree that it's more interesting than Monsanto bastardizing every seed on the planet I still think it could potentially be a bad idea. It's not the part we know that scares me, it's the part we don't know. I just don't understand when (we as humans) will start to realize that we need to start working with mother nature and stop trying to mold it. Take corn for example. That's humans working with mother nature to domesticate a crop. On the other hand when you start switching genes on and off it seems a step too far. But that's just my personal opinion. A lot of what seems like a good idea at the time ends up biting us in the end. Case in point. When we started mechanizing farming through the use of fossil fuels. It allowed us to have the green revolution. There were cheers from everyone No more hunger!. However no one stopped (at the time) to consider that abundance of food would equal an abundance of people. (Liebigs Law in action). If you overlay an oil production chart and a population growth chart they almost sync perfectly. Now we're in a situation where we use an estimated 14 to 21 calories of hydrocarbons to produce one calorie of food. The oil supplies are dwindling and we have 6.5 billion mouths to feed. Most of which rely on mechanized farming. This is why I respect you and Journey to Forever so much. From what I've seen you guys seem to understand that in the near future, energy is going to have to be produced from local and multiple sustainable sources. And so is food. Conservation is also going to be key. As far as trees go, I'm not sure if you mean the ones that grow naturally in the forest or calorie crop trees. The ones in the forest have built up resistances over time and still succumb to pests and diseases. Just look at Ash trees for a present day example. As far as calorie crop trees, my orchard gives me more headaches due to pests and diseases than any other crops I grow. On a side note I'd also like to add, I've only been a member of the list for a short time now but would like to thank everyone for the great input and thought that goes into this. Sharing of knowledge is one of the most admirable things you can do. -Rob -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Keith Addison Sent: Friday, November 14, 2008 3:03 AM To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Annuals converted into perennials Hello Rob While I find it impressive that a crop could be turned into a perennial I'm also of the opinion this could be a Pandora's box. Yes, good and bad ways of doing it. Furthermore, crop rotation is key to avoiding disease and pests. Not really. If a crop (let's say wheat) stays in the same spot it's just inviting pest and disease build up. Also not really. For instance, the famed Broadbalk field at Rothamsted in the UK produced wheat and only wheat for more than 120 years, without any fertiliser of any kind nor any other inputs except fresh seed every year. Crop rotation certainly helps, where appropriate, for some crops more than for others, but it's not key. If that's all you're doing to avoid disease and pests you'll just be trying to run away from them, and they'll catch you anyway. Other essential methods are biodiversity, suitable varieties, and, most important, without which all else fails, building and maintaining a healthy soil life - that's the key, not just rotations. For which, I suggest you read this:
Re: [Biofuel] Annuals converted into perennials
While I find it impressive that a crop could be turned into a perennial I'm also of the opinion this could be a Pandora's box. Furthermore, crop rotation is key to avoiding disease and pests. If a crop (let's say wheat) stays in the same spot it's just inviting pest and disease build up. -Rob -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chris Burck Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 11:35 AM To: sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Annuals converted into perennials yes, really interesting. bit of a huge pandora's box also. thank goodness this came out of a university, rather than a private lab! still, fascinating. On 11/13/08, Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello Jon Indeed it's interesting, considering how virtually all perennials have some sort of survival mechanism such as bulbs, tubers, etc as mentioned below. Of course this generalisation does not apply to grasses et al... so it is just conceivable that such an experiment would be workable on crops... Wonder where this will go. So do I. We (and the biosphere) are probably going to need all the crop diversity and adaptability we can get, maybe this could help. I suppose there are good and bad ways of doing it. Just the same, useful to know there might be such a possibility. Best Keith --- On Wed, 11/12/08, Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Annuals converted into perennials To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Date: Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 7:11 AM That's very interesting, thankyou. Best Keith There is a new development in how to develop perennials of some of the plants we use for our food production, such as wheat. Evidently there are some genes responsible for the distinction between annuals perennials - seems that a team of Belgian scientists found how to toggle the switch, so to speak. best wishes Shan Annuals converted into perennials _http://www.physorg.com/news145514195.html_ (http://www.physorg.com/news145514195.html) Scientists from VIB at Ghent University, Belgium, have succeeded in converting annual plants into perennials. They discovered that the deactivation of two genes in annuals led to the formation of structures that converted the plant into a perennial. This was most likely an important mechanism in plant evolution, initiating the formation of trees. Annual crops grow, blossom and die within one year. Perennials overwinter and grow again the following year. The life strategy of many annuals consists of rapid growth following germination and rapid transition to flower and seed formation, thus preventing the loss of energy needed to create permanent structures. They germinate quickly after the winter so that they come out before other plants, thus eliminating the need to compete for food and light. The trick is basically to make as many seeds as possible in as short a time as possible. Perennials have more evolved life strategies for surviving in poor conditions. They compose perennial structures such as overwintering buds, bulbs or tubers. These structures contain groups with cells that are not yet specialised, but which can later be converted when required into new organs such as stalks and leaves. Annual crops consume all the non-specialised cells in developing their flowers. Thus the appearance of the flower signals means the end of the plant. But fortunately they have left seeds that sense - after winter - that the moment has come to start up. Plants are able to register the lengthening of the days. With the advent of longer days in the spring, a signal is sent from the leaves to the growth tops to activate a limited number of blooming-induction genes. VIB researchers, such as Siegbert Melzer in Tom Beeckman's group, have studied two such flower-inducing genes. They have deactivated them in thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), a typical annual. The VIB researchers found that mutant plants can no longer induce flowering, but they can continue to grow vegetatively or come into flower much later. Melzer had found that modified crops did not use up their store of non-specialised cells, enabling perennial growth. They can therefore continue to grow for a very long time. As with real perennials these plants show secondary growth with wood formation creating shrub-like Arabidopsis plants. Researchers have been fascinated for a long time by the evolution of herbaceous to woody structures. This research clearly shows only two genes are in fact necessary in this process. This has probably been going on throughout the evolution of plants. Furthermore it is not inconceivable this happened independently on multiple occasions. Source: VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology), Belgium (http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm) ___
