Plant Sex Ed!
Gardener Jill's lesson on indoor pollinating & legit reason to put sex in a headline
Tuesday’s Chicago Region Farmers Markets
(* denotes market season opener)
Tuesday, June 1
Weather.com forecast: Intervals of clouds and sunshine, high 71
Accuweather forecast: Times of clouds and sun, high 71
Fox Lake Farmers Market, 17 E. School Ct., Fox Lake*
4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Lincoln Square Tuesday Market, W. Leland & N. Lincoln Aves., Chicago
7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
SOAR (Streeterville) Farmers Market, 226 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago*
7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Sycamore Farmers Market, 403 Edward St., Sycamore*
3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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Plant Sex Ed! (All About Indoor Pollinating)
Jill Tessler is a neighbor of ours in our Lakeview high-rise who has had amazing success growing edible plants inside her apartment, and she has become a regular contributor to Local Food Forum (her previous articles can be found here and here).
Jill is a veterinarian who is deeply steeped in science, so who better to explain the process by which plants reproduce — and how, as an indoor grower, you can assist in the pollination process, given that your residence is not, presumably, full of bees. Enjoy her informative and as always engaging article below.
And as the publisher of Local Food Forum, I am grateful to have a legitimate excuse to use the word “Sex” in a headline, because we are all about those readership metrics. — Bob
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Sex is ever-present in most gardens. This is because flowers are the sex organs of most plants we grow. It is no mistake that we are drawn to flowers: They make a grand show of their attractiveness with colors, shapes, smells and tastes — all to promote propagation of their gametes, specialized cells containing a randomized half of genetic instructions to join with another similar cell that has the other half of the code.
In the grand evolutionary scene, plants followed a path similar to animals. Single-celled organisms arose in the oceans, capable of turning sunlight into sugary energy sources via photosynthesis. Some developed into multi-cellular organisms enabling sexual reproduction and providing variation that was evolutionarily advantageous.
Some of the resulting organisms eventually attempted to colonize edges of land. These early-plants, like mosses and eventually ferns, had only ever known a watery environment, however, so their sperm could only travel in water to reach eggs of their own species.
This was true for many millions of years before plants evolved a way to spread some of their gametes (sperm) via wind in the form of pollens. It was even longer before flowers developed. These specialty parts use all of their floral wiles to attract insects and birds to also help move pollen from one flower to the ovary/ovaries of another flower (hence the term pollinators).
Fertilization not only initiates seed formation for creating a new plant. It also initiates formation of sugar-concentrated fruits to attract additional animals to consume seeds and carry them to distant locations, to be pooped out replete with their own personal pile of fertilizer. Fruit are expensive for a plant to make, but well worth it if it means many successful baby plants with baby plant dreams spreading across the globe.
So... here is where we get back to my overarching topic of indoor gardening. If you are growing flowering plants indoors and want eventual fruits/veggies for your consumption (or seeds for future plants), it is important to realize that you are providing neither bees nor much wind to help your plants get it on and make babies.
If you’ve ever taken an introductory biology course, you may have vague memories of them bringing up an illustration of a lily. This is because lilies’ sexy bits are very obvious (as you can see in the photo at the top of this article). There is a small, central rod in the middle of the flower (pistil) that leads down to the base of flower where the ovary hides. Surrounding this are several smaller branches (stamen) that have copious orange pollen all over the ends.
The pollen needs to move from the smaller surrounding branches to the tip of the center pistil. Nature will do the rest.
For most garden flowers, this can be done on the same flower of the same plant. There are some plants, though, that have separate male flowers and female flowers on the same plant (e.g. squash) or only produce male parts or female parts on each plant (e.g. asparagus), so you may need to know more about your veggies to know if/how indoor fertilization is possible.
Although you may be intimidated by the thought of trying to be an effective bee, it should be noted that many common veggie flowers only need the mildest of motion to release enough pollen for fertilization. Peppers and peas generally do not need intervention, although a little extra encouragement won’t hurt.
Strawberry flowers have a unique central structure of many pistils interspersed with many stamens (each pistil will become a seed on the outside of the strawberry if successfully fertilized). Although strawberries self-fertilize easily, the more pistils that are successfully fertilized, the more complete and large your fruit will be. For these, tickling the yellow center of each flower with a soft paintbrush is effective.
For tomato flowers, the pistil and stamen are hidden inside a central sheath and really benefit from extra encouragement. Because the parts are hidden, ample vibration is key. I used to use a paintbrush to gently shake each flower, but I recently read about using an electric toothbrush held to the branch holding several flowers to successfully fertilize all of them at once. I am having good success with this method so far this season, and it is easier than individually brushing each flower.
A successful fertilization will signal the plant to change to fruit/seed production pretty quickly. The flower should wilt within a couple of days (sometimes it is obvious even the next day), and signs of fruit development will begin to show soon after from the base of the flower. After that, you can enjoy the excitement of impending growing and ripening fruit to eat.
As a final note, sometimes plants will get premature seasonal signals to try to flower early, or sadly, try to flower as a last-ditch effort to propagate because they are actually in distress and dying. Don’t forget: Making fruit is expensive for plants!
If you need your plant to be larger or healthier overall, you don’t want to fertilize those flowers (in fact, you should cut them off to ensure they don’t self-fertilize and draw energy from the small or unhealthy plant). But if you have a lush, healthy plant in peak season with flowers starting to show... game on!
Ravinia Farmers Market Is All Tuned Up
Ravinia Farmers Market in suburban Highland Park kicks off its 43rd season Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. And our friends there asked us to let you know that the opener will be Customer Appreciation Day.
There will be organic product giveaways, a free drawing for community-provided prizes, and acoustic music (no surprise for a market that shares a name with Chicagoland’s famed outdoor summer music venue).
Ed Kugler, a veteran of the region’s local food community, cites two big developments. The lineup of vendors at the Ravinia market has doubled since last year to more than 35. The market also recently launched an upgraded website, where you can find the details before your market visit.
Ravinia Farmers Market is located in Jens Jensen Park in Highland Park’s Ravinia Business District.
[Note to market managers: We are hungry for your market news too. Please send info about your news and events to bob@localfoodforum.com.]
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Our friend Gerry from Morgan Park is a fab gardener, and we’re grateful for his updates. The top photo shows his garden off to a nice start. The second shows how fast a well-tended garden can grow in just two weeks. The goldfinch at the bird feeder is a bonus.
C’mon, gardeners, don’t you want to show off your masterpieces too? We’d love to feature your photos in Local Food Forum. Just send them to bob@localfoodforum.com and let me know how you want to be identified.
Farmers Market Openings Next Week
We ran out of space in our Market Monday issue because of the 29 new market openings that needed to be added to this week’s schedule. So the preview of the markets opening next week is below.
I love this newsletter format but it does have some space limitations. To keep the schedule listings under control, I’m inclined to divide them in two, with markets in Chicago’s outer suburbs and exurbs running on Sundays and markets in the city of Chicago and inner suburbs (such as Evanston) staying on Mondays. If you have a strong objection to that idea, let me know.
Coming attractions:
Monday, June 7: Edgewater (Chicago) Farmers Market (currently listed as June only)
Thursday, June 10: Austin (Chicago) City Market; Glencoe Farmers Market
Saturday, June 12: Aurora Farmers Market Downtown; Deerfield Farmers Market; Garfield Park Neighborhood Market (every other Saturday)
Sunday, June 13: Buffalo Grove Farmers Market; Hyde Park (Chicago) Farmers Market; Jefferson Park (Chicago) Farmers Market (every other Sunday); Roscoe Village (Chicago) Farmers Market
Take a Quiz
What is Brettanomyces?
a) A village in Greece
b) A condition caused by food allergies
c) A wild beer yeast
d) An aversion to people named Brett
Answer: c) Brettanomyces, better known as Brett, is a wild yeast that imparts sour or other funky flavors to beers, especially barrel-aged brews. It is most prominent in Belgian ales, saisons or farmhouse ales, lambics, and innovative expressions by today’s craft brewers. We previously have published about sour beers from Maplewood and Dovetail.