Why a Plant’s Stem Can Tell You More Than Its Leaves
When most people think about checking on a plant’s health, they look at the leaves. Are they wilting? Curling? Turning brown at the edges? It’s a natural place to look, since leaves are the most visible part of the plant. But leaves are often one of the last places water stress shows up, not the […]
What Your Potatoes Are Doing at Night (and Why It Matters)
Most growers know their crops act differently in the heat of the day than they do overnight. Leaves wilt a little in the afternoon sun and perk back up by morning. But what about a potato, sitting entirely underground, out of sight the whole time? Does it have a day-night rhythm too? That question was […]
How Do You Measure a Tree Breathing? One Sensor’s Answer
A tree doesn’t look like it’s doing much from the outside. It just stands there. But if you could zoom in close enough on its trunk, hour by hour, you’d see it quietly swelling and shrinking every single day, almost like it’s breathing. That daily rhythm is one of the clearest signals a tree gives […]
What Two Desert Plants Can Teach Us About Surviving Drought
Out on the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington, summers are long, hot, and dry. Most years bring only about 160 mm of rain, and almost all of it falls in the fall and winter. By the time summer rolls around, the land is dominated by two tough, unrelated shrubs that have figured out very different […]
Can You Measure a Potato Growing Underground? Yes, Here’s How
If you grow fruit, you’ve probably heard of sensors that clip onto a stem or a piece of fruit and track its growth day by day. That technology has been around for years, and it works well because the fruit is right there, hanging in the open air where you can reach it. But what […]