Cardamine hirsuta

Nhu Nguyen xerantheum@gmail.com
Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:23:42 PDT
Hi everyone,

One of the best things about the PBS board is that we are encouraged to
debate about topics surrounding geophytes. Sometimes we stray from that and
it's OK, but let's remember to keep our public text as public voices and
treat each other as if we were facing each other in person. Please check
your text before sending it out to make sure you're typing what you really
want to say so that it doesn't sound offensive.

The other great thing about the internet format is that if you're not
interested in a conversation, it's so easy to hit the delete button.

Russ, I disagree that we have to sit here in silence about issues that
affect us. If we remain silent, that means what we oppose has won. Even if
what we say doesn't make a big difference now, it could be a small stone
that starts an avalanche. How could we expect to spread the words to others
unless we speak about it in public? While limited use of pesticides in
gardens can help, it's the big farming industry that's is the major
contributors to the relevant pollution. Switching to organic farming is a
practical approach and I do wish that organic farming was well subsidized
like it is with the meat industry. Organic produce would then not be as
expensive as it is. It just seems so wrong to have meat being cheaper than
veggies.

Christian, the answer to your question is simple to answer. Just dig out
some soil where you think there may have been a crop of C. hirsuta from the
previous year. Mix the soil well and divide that in half and put them into
two containers. Spray one container with glyphosate and the other one with
water. Soon the seeds will sprout and you will have an answer as to whether
glyphosate induces germination. Although to show real statistical
significance, you will need more than 10 pots of each treatment. Glyphosate
works by inhibiting enzymes involved in breaking down and making of sugars
in plants, thus slowly starving the plant to death. I'm not sure how this
is functional in inducing germination. One other explanation is that it is
able to inhibit other enzymes as well, and these enzymes may be enzymes
that keep C. hirsuta seeds in dormancy.

Nhu
President, PBS



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