Why are plants green?

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by esbo, Jul 20, 2011.

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  1. Walter L. Wagner Cosmic Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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  3. Ellis Registered Senior Member

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    I think one of the most fascinating aspects to reading sciforums is the crackpot, troll, delusional rambler aspect to the occasional post. Of course, the primary reason for me reading (as I have for several years) is the incredible wealth of knowledge that is able to be tapped on such a huge variety of subjects. So, for me, the lengthy posts on this subject have been interesting yet, I'm even more interested in the continued responses from the original poster. I don't understand people like this... at all. I'm not sure what continues to motivate their responses after their obvious avoidance of repeated relevant engagement on their topic. It's like they have no sense of shame... to boil it down. I can't honestly believe it's as simple as being a debate tactic, as they are intelligent enough to engage in a cursory manner, therefore, the obvious must be at least, somewhat discernible. Delusion is not a consideration for me either, as they specifically avoid the "meat and potatoes" of the topic when presented. Any insight? I've given up on Esbo addressing the main topic.
     
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  5. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    I have, from time to time, been asked the question why I waste my time on people that are so obviously trolls.

    For what it's worth (and to be perfectly frank) as often as not it's not for their benefit, but the benefit of 'third parties' who may be reading this thread and not commenting, or come across this thread at some future date.

    When I went through Highschool, my teachers encouraged me to ask questions, because you can gaurantee that for everyperson that asks a question, there's ten others thinking it.
     
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  7. scheherazade Northern Horse Whisperer Valued Senior Member

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    That you put considerable effort into your posts is obvious, Trippy, and no doubt greatly appreciated by the 'silent majority' of people who frequent this forum.

    Observable that there are usually hundreds of people viewing threads, while often only a few dozen are posting.

    You had good teachers in high school, by your comment made. My teachers also stressed the point that the only 'dumb question' was the one that never got asked.

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  8. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    One of the points that was made repeatedly during my highschool, and university careers was that the teachers, and lecturers weren't there to teach us what to think, they were teaching us how to think.
     
  9. Ellis Registered Senior Member

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    Well, thank you very much for your posts, Trippy. I've been reading content on this site silently for some time. I've learned a lot and appreciate it, cheers.
     
  10. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Where is the little mouse anyway?
    Esbo. Where are you? I have some cheese for you.
     
  11. juliet2011 Registered Member

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    i get the same feelings.
     
  12. esbo Registered Senior Member

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    Been doing a spot of gardening, having some trouble with plants that are struggling, the leaves are turning yellow.

    I am not sure why, I think it is because the sol is poor or too wet, not sure why that makes the leaves lose their colour.
    Maybe they can take up nutrients.

    I added potassium (Epsom salts) as potassium is in chlorophyll, but then so is nitrogen.

    I think the problem is the soil is heavy and air can't get to the the roots.
     
  13. Me-Ki-Gal Banned Banned

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    You probably have a potash problem . You will know if you start to get cellular collapse on your Tomato plants , but typically your foliage will look real good until the stems start to collapse from there own weight, or more likely it could be to much nitration . Over feeding will lead to yellow leafage . Over watering also like you said will drowned the plant and cause yellowing on the leaf . Good luck with that
     
  14. wlminex Banned Banned

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    . . . . plants appear "green" to us (humans) . . . . they appear different to insects - an attractive property. If dogs are truly 'color-blind' plants most likely apprear various shades of gray.

    wlminex
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2011
  15. wlminex Banned Banned

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    . . .also, Post #169 . . . .epsom salt(s) is magnesium sulfate . . . THERE could be the source of your problem!

    wlminex
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2011
  16. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Dogs have a modest array of color receptors. Nothing like ours, but more than enough to not qualify as color-blind.

    Wolves happily hunt in the daylight. Evolution has adapted cats much more thoroughly to being nocturnal predators. Night scenes appear six times brighter to them than they do to us. But in the daytime they probably see everything as slightly differentiated pastels.
     
  17. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    Dogs are Dichromats - they have two colour receptors, one peaks in the blue-violet range, the other in the yellow-green range. In human terms, they would be diagnosed as suffering Deuternopia (Neitz, Geist & Jacobs 1989; Jacobs et al 1993; Miller & Murphy 1995).

    They are both colour blind, and can distinguish colours. It's just that their perception of them differs from that of your average human. The tests that most people think of when they say that dogs can't see colours actually only (reliably) came to the conclusion that colour discrimination doesn't play a significant role in a dogs daily life.

    Further reading.
     
  18. esbo Registered Senior Member

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    Thanks for that, the plants are actually tobacco plants. (similar to tomato).
    I have tried various thinks but nothing much has worked particularly well.
    I have stopped watering for a start but I did give them a little today as I was
    adding some sulphate of ammonia which is supposed to be good for foliage.


    The plants were OK when in pots of compost, the problem seemed to occur when I put them in the mainly clay soil or bigger pots with clay. I also started using a liquid fertiliser at that point, but I have stopped that now as I am also worried it could be over fertilisation, however it only affected the pots with clay so that seems unlikely. I was thinking the clay was blocking the drainage.

    I had a look at the roots of one pot that was affected and they were white ie not black and rotted. Anyway I am not expecting much it was just and experiment really to see if they would grow.

    I have tried watering in Epsom salts but noticed no immediate effect. I have no idea how long a fertiliser takes to show effect though.

    The plants is supposed to prefer a sandy well drained soil, the opposite of what it is in!!
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2011
  19. Me-Ki-Gal Banned Banned

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    Clay don't take water well and when it does it don't dry out . It is good for grasses but not to much more . Strawberry will grow good in clay . Maybe you need a little sand and gravel mixed in the soil
     
  20. Me-Ki-Gal Banned Banned

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    Don't put salt in the siol by the way . That other person was right .
     
  21. Trippy ALEA IACTA EST Staff Member

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    Source
    Also, fertilizing with apatite, which has the net effect of starving the plants of nitrogen improves the flavour, apparently.
     
  22. esbo Registered Senior Member

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    Yes I should have done that but I did not realise how bad it was, one part of the garden did not appear to have a lot of clay in in but another part was full of it.
    I will have to try and get some sand and organic matter in there, but it is a bit late for that for this year.

    The ammonium sulphate fertiliser turned out to be a bad idea too by the looks of it, I think it made some of the yellow leaves go more brown.

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    Do I won't be using that again, I think that is 'fertiliser burn'.

    It has been a rather disappoint experiment overall, although things started off quite promising things are looking pretty pear shaped ATM and could well get worse. Only time will tell.
     
  23. esbo Registered Senior Member

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    Yes I did not realise how much clay was in the soil at the time - big mistake.

    I could try digging up the worst and sticking in some compost and replanting them. That can hardly make thing worse than they all ready are and it would improve the soil for the future, Sound like hard work though.
     
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