MAX FACTS GROWING TIPS, NEWS AND TRIVIA
January in the Garden
The catalogs have arrived and we all have grand visions of our new, improved
outdoor gardens. But right now all most of us can do is get things pruned and
ready for new growth. If you live in a warmer climate, hopefully you’re taking
advantage of the cool, wet months of winter to indulge in sweet peas and salad
greens. Whether you’re staying warm indoors and gardening vicariously, or you’re
outside getting things in order, here are a few seasonal gardening tips to help
you get through winter. January is a great time to order from catalogs, rework
your garden design, review last year’s garden journal and start a new one
for this year by recording your seed/plant orders. You should also check your
stored bulbs and veggies, and check plants for heaving. Also consider taking
a gardening workshop, and don’t forget to sharpen your tools, recycle your
Christmas tree as garden mulch and provide birds with some unfrozen water.
(Source: gardening.about.com)
New Photosynthesis Discovery
Researchers studying a biological process that enables green algae to grow efficiently
have taken the first steps towards re-creating the mechanism in more complex plants.
Their findings could lead to the breeding of high-yield varieties of common crops such
as wheat, rice and barley. Algae cells are known to have a specialized mechanism that
boosts their internal concentration of CO2 during photosynthesis. This process supports
other mechanisms that convert this store of carbon into the sugars the cells need to
grow. Many staple crops, and nearly all vegetables, undergo a less-efficient method
of photosynthesis and cannot actively raise their internal concentrations of CO2 the
same way algae can. “If we can harness the systems that simple plants use to grow
efficiently, we may be able to create highly productive crops,” says Dr. Alistair McCormick
of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Biological Sciences, who led the research now
published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal.
(Source: sciencedaily.com)
US Doesn’t Have Enough Veggies
Are you eating enough vegetables? That is, vegetables on their own, in salads or
prepared in a home-cooked meal, as opposed to in the form of ketchup, French fries and
pizza? The USDA recommends that Americans eat 2.5-3 cups of a variety of vegetables
every day. There are two problems with that, as shown in a recent data report
provided by the department: the US only has about 1.7 cups available per
person each day, and the majority of what we do have available consists of
potatoes, tomatoes and lettuce. That’s not much variety. Eating a
mixture of dark, leafy greens, orange and
yellow vegetables, and beans, along with
potatoes and tomatoes, gives us the
necessary nutrients we may not otherwise
get and consumption of vegetables
reduces our risk of heart attacks, strokes
and some cancers. But when we’re
eating them in the form of pizza,
French fries and ketchup, the
nutritional value is lost.
(Source: urbanfarmonline.com)
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Maximum Yield USA | January 2016