My sunflowers this year are the tallest sunflowers I have ever seen. The tallest one hasn't even opened it's flower yet. It amazes me that this represents about 2 months of growth, perhaps a bit more, but still! Photsynthesis works very well indeed. I wonder... are Sunflowers a C4 plant? Or an ordinary C3? Hmmm a casual Googling did not answer that question. That growth rate smacks of C4, but it is native to North America, which most commonly produces C3 plants...
I am off to see Narrisch. My garden will mostly have to fend for itself, and tomatoes are ripening, and the basil is huge and bushy and starting to flower. It should be cut back. The first bean flowers are turning white, and the plants are finally climbing fast. I may come back to my first beans of the year.
I am pleased with it, one of the few joys of summer. (I am not a summer person)
4 comments:
*gobsmacked* Aren't they supposed to be half that height?
Heh, have you been singing to them?
Hmph. I wish my basil was huge and bushy. It's spindly and tiny-leaved. Perhaps I should have planted it outside instead of in indoor pots.
Flowyks, it is the climate, hot and humid. Basil loves it (and so do sunflowers). I do till in a lot of compost, but when I lived in Seattle, which has a climate much like yours, my basil was always sparse and spindly. Indoors may be marginally better than out, if you have a very very sunny wondow, if it gets cold at night outside. Basil loves heat and light. Of course you have had an unusually hot summer? If so, would've been better outside. My basil is the bushy stuff in the right back bed.
Hmm... it is in a window that gets direct light all day, and ends up very warm. But I didn't think to put it outside in the warm weather. I have planted it outdoors before, to no avail, and realised it does much better in warmer climates. But we don't get much humidity either. Shame, because I adore basil. I guess I'll just have to keepy buying the bushy stuff from the supermarkets, and use my spindly stuff for the occasional salad.
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