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Entry Date
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Nick Name
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Location
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Monday, January 20, 2025
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Little Ketchup
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Grittyville, WA
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Entry 17 of 30 |
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Vine efficiency diagram. There is a certain set distance that phloem can travel in 24 hours. I believe it flows at about 3 ft per hour? Vines probably contribute to the pumpkins based on math. Vine theory mathematics: Adding 6 feet of vine adds 2 hours to the travel time of the phloem and would reduce the contribution of this portion of the plant by at least 2 hours/ 24 hour day = 8.3%. In reality though I bet the phloem effectively flows slower near the vine tips than near the pumpkin. It might flow a 3 ft per hour at the pumpkin but the farther you get from the pumpkin, the slower it might travel. At 3 x 24 = 72 feet the phloem basically could not reach the pumpkin within a 24 hour period even at the fastest flow speed. But here my guess (yes guess) would be that the effective phloem flow speed also goes to zero (linearly?) approaching the periphery of the plant. If its a linear decrease in the speed as you go out outward then the effective distance that a peripheral part of the plant can contribute gets cut in half. Thus, 72/2= 36 feet. This also means that adding six feet of "average distance" vine would add 6/36 x 24= 4 hours of time to the total time to reach the pumpkin and reduce the "phloem delivery" efficiency by 16.6 % aka pumpkin size.
Im seeing some beautiful math here that shows why the vines and roots grow at a steady rather than exponential rate (its all based on phloem speed) and the max growth speed of a plant must be an equation of total nutrients needed to grow the plant distance x/ phloem rate = time to grow distance x
You cant change the phloem "density" because the plant self regulates (it won't clog its own arteries with excess sugar, its designed to regulate its blood sugar up to a max threshold just as we humans are supposed to be self regulating for things like sugar and sodium, bad things happen when there is no self regulation mechanism). The flow speed might change based on temperature, and the transport efficiency out of the leaves might change based on phosphorus, and ions like magnesium can be recycled faster depending on the plants transpiration rate. But I digress.
So I think phloem speed is a proven concept, it might be slightly enhanced by sufficient potassium, other electrolytes, temperature, source/sink osmotic gradients, and certainly the availability of water.
Get the right design, the right calcium levels, and then thing can go kaboom: Excess energy, potassium, and roots, and stress free availability of water (nutrient feeding roots separate from tap roots for water possibly) should = explosive growth.
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