there is an organization harvestplus that is devoted to creating plants with higher micronutrient content with support from the bill n melinda gates foundation; from viewing wheatgrass nutrient label content that compares size of plant with age of plant I think that plant nutrient density goes with root surface area (RSA) rather than accumulation. I think at wheatgrass multiple months of growth have much less effect on measured nutrient content than plant size.
The technique is just to have farmers view the rooty mass of a few hundred plants from their favorite plant species then keep n propagate those with higher root surface area.
this is the same ancient strategy associated with breeding plants visually just applied to a part of the plant that gives nutrition to the plant
I think fertilizer could plump up the edible part of the plant if the larger RSA had a metabolic value
the people at the plant micronutrient research group were developing varieties then suggesting farmers use them This technique gives the farmers an opportunity to develop material wherever they are a little like crowdsourcing-- beanangel, Mar 26 2008 harvestplus http://www.harvestplus.org/HarvestPlus is a global alliance of institutions and scientists seeking to improve human nutrition by breeding new varieties of staple food crops consumed by the poor that have higher levels of micronutrients, through a process called biofortification. [beanangel, Apr 05 2008] Ah. So we're not taling about encrypting vegetables?-- DrCurry, Mar 26 2008 Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, Len Adelman? I am all for extending the use of primes to our understanding of the universe. We measure in units and any unit measurement will encounter primes, and associated patterns. But this is insane.
More seriously, the big work has already been done by nature. No use fighting it. Root systems adapt to extract maximum benefit for least construction cost. Roots have a duel role. Extraction and anchoring. Exemplified by rain basin jungles/forests having no tap rooting systems, etc.
Hydroponics is only a way of saying: "for your (y) root structure we give you (x) artificial support and maximum nutrients. And we expect maximum conversion from base elements to product." These are well known priciples.
The high cost (both financially and from an administrative/intellectual point) of "super-cultivation" eliminates the people to whom you have directed this idea. With the exception of fuel crops, who couldn't give a <strikethrough> fuck <\strikethrough> about nutrients over carbohydrates.-- 4whom, Mar 26 2008 Chronic, blubonic, chocolate Thai stick, you want it Jamaican green, silver haze, the Northern Lights get ya ass in a daze Purple hydro, Indonesian skunks, you can tell by the funk All we need is some 'o dat micronutrient stuff...
...or was that RZA?-- wagster, Mar 26 2008 I got quite a chuckle from the capital T used on the word *This* in the middle of a sentence. I like your freeform writing [Treon].-- xandram, Mar 26 2008 I never thought I'd miss Treon. It's a priviledge to be able to bone another one.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 26 2008 My thoughts exactly, MB, especially after the deluge of prostercal that's been washing through here recently (you made that word up, didn't you? Not that that will stop me using it meaningfully in conversation from now on anyway).-- lostdog, Mar 26 2008 "the big work has already been done by nature. No use fighting it"
most ornamentals as well as fruits are the the product of guided evolution this technique goes with effective RSA optimization as well-- beanangel, Mar 27 2008 I'd like to thank you, [Treon], for two things.
(1) for, as [Maxwell] articulates, and as I annotated in one of those horrid "ideas" that we have recently had, gracing us once again with your at the very least interesting and mind-occupying thought-jumbles, and
(2) perhaps more importantly (though I may be wrong, I will assume it was purposeful), for making the effort to not delete and edit [4whom]'s annotation, as we have requested. I hereby request of [4whom], out of respect at least for the effort, that he/she edit it himself/herself to remove the expletive, which perhaps in the past caused the condition we all were objecting to. Yes?-- globaltourniquet, Mar 27 2008 Can anyone spot which two items on the following list are similar?
1) Treon's brain
2) The contents of an industrial vacuum cleaner.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 27 2008 What is being suggested is that we selectively breed plants to improve their properties, but pick a slightly unusual metric as it is possible that this will be better than just breeding for size?
[marked-for-deletion] almost as old as the wheel.
Incidentally, we're basing this fundamental shift on a random thought based on the nutritional information found on the label of a wheatgrass packet?-- david_scothern, Mar 28 2008 //Roots have a duel role//Playing banjo, or shooting at each other with pistols?-- coprocephalous, Mar 28 2008 //It's a priviledge//
'Privilege', [MB], 'Privilege'.-- pertinax, Mar 28 2008 I think [coproflubabfloop] meant to say
Roots have a duel role - shooting at each other with *pistils*...-- globaltourniquet, Mar 28 2008 expletive eliminated as per request.
dual - duel, my appologies. But it makes node ifference. The idea that fibrous, or adventitious, root systems, or any other trait, can be selectively bred is old. Mostly because the difference in root structure, bears its fruits, so to speak, visually. Maybe someone will rhizome new insights, though.-- 4whom, Apr 01 2008 Tuber, or not tuber. That is the question.-- normzone, Apr 04 2008 random, halfbakery