HAVE you ever heard of a Circadian clock?
Evidently the Circadian rhythm is the 24-hour internal clock in our brain that regulates cycles of alertness and sleepiness by responding to light changes in our environment.
Our physiology and behaviour are shaped by the earth’s rotation around its axis.
Who would have thought that this clock was in all of us, and we can actually change the ‘clock’ by adjusting our sleep patterns and is actually in all people, animals, insects, plants and other organisms.
So how does this clock affect our plants?
Actually, what the plants detect are nights getting shorter and daylight hours getting longer this is brought about by a molecule called a Phytochrome and allows the plant to detect changes in the seasons.
This clock tells them when it’s time to start responding to the different times of the year.
So, like plants we can tell different times by the light around us together with the temperature and in the case of humans we come in out of the cold air or bask in the sun to warm up.
We often see plants facing the sun so why do they do this?
They are highly sensitive to light sensing proteins that find the shortest route to the sunlight and are even able to bend towards the strongest light source.
They do this by elongating the cells of their stems on the side that is farthest away from the light.
This circadian clock tells the plants when it’s dark and when it’s light and so like most people, plants are less active at night.
So, putting a light on a plant at night does not make them respond due to the fact that like us they need time to rejuvenate and recover that key compound – phytochrome.
The opposite of say a garden solar panel where it needs the light of day to rejuvenate and shine at night.
The morning sun is much cooler and less intense than the afternoon sun and because different plants like the heat more than others, care should be taken when planting, so that the right spot is chosen. Some plants love the extreme heat and will thrive in this environment.
Others, not so much.
It’s often said that talking to your plants gently makes them grow more, while classical music is said to stimulate the cells.
Whatever you believe, gardens to many folks bring peace and joy to the human spirit.
Hence many hospitals and communities have special places where one can sit and contemplate their existence.
As it happens, eggshells can provide calcium carbonate to the soil and help lower the PH level, because many plants prefer to grow in soil that has low acidity.
Do plants like to be touched? Some studies have shown that the lightest touch from a human, animal, insect or even plants touching one another, triggers a gene response in the plant and within 30 minutes, 10% of the plant’s genomes are altered.
It is known that when an insect lands on a plant, genes are activated, preparing the plant to defend itself against being eaten.
Maybe we are more like plants than we would like to think.
