Sunday, May 23, 2010

Natural height for climbers

Winged bean plant, standing up refusing to bend and rest
(that man squatting is a municipal worker, looking after the landscape)

That brings us to a very important point. Does plants like winged beans which love climbing has its own natural height.  If i let the plant climb up a 100 ft coconut tree, I am not too sure if the plant is courageous enough to climb the whole height. It may just keep climbing and flowering and fruiting and die off before the maximun height is reached. Or it may just decides to reach a reasonable height and make it dense by growing around that height, branching, flowering and fruiting within the dense foliage.



The way that shoot in the picture trying to stand up on its tiny stem does give some indication of what is  the natural height. But the plant decides that it has gone enough, bends at the tip and ready to fall slowly and rests on top of the trellis.





bangchik

3 comments:

  1. Very interesting post, and a lovely picture. It reminds me of an article I read recently, about climbers, that they will always wind clockwise or counterclockwise, but can't do both. If you try to wind the plant the wrong way, it will unwind before continuing to grow/climb.

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  2. Tried to grow winged beans twice here in Japan, but failed in both attempts... just as they were flowering, the cold came in and the planted wilted... still, shall try again in the future by starting the seeds earlier...

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  3. AaronVFT
    Rebecca @ In The Garden
    Lrong

    I assume that all plant do have limits. A little weed remain small and will not grow up like a tree. There is limit to their growth and age. No living things seem to be growing forever, their existence is limited. What last forever will be the legacy.

    A climber may just have a limit to their advancing growth. I dont know.

    Thanks, and may you have success with gardening.

    BANGCHIK

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