Plant Girdling?!?!

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WalkedOnTheMoon

Active Member
Hey Guys,

I was doing a bit of research for one of my classes and found something that struck my interest and was wondering what you all would think. It's called plant girdling. Essentially the concept is to remove the phloem off of the plant to stop downward flow of photosynthetic sugars. It is normally used to kill plants, but some fruit growers girdle certain parts of the plant so the leaves cannot transport their sugars downward leaving the only place of the phloem to sink into the collateral fruits. They do this to create fruits many times the size they would normally. Has anyone ever tried doing this with bud? maybe on just a lateral stem? i found it rather interesting :)
 
pandabear

pandabear

Well-Known Member
WalkedOnTheMoon said:
Hey Guys,

I was doing a bit of research for one of my classes and found something that struck my interest and was wondering what you all would think. It's called plant girdling. Essentially the concept is to remove the phloem off of the plant to stop downward flow of photosynthetic sugars. It is normally used to kill plants, but some fruit growers girdle certain parts of the plant so the leaves cannot transport their sugars downward leaving the only place of the phloem to sink into the collateral fruits. They do this to create fruits many times the size they would normally. Has anyone ever tried doing this with bud? maybe on just a lateral stem? i found it rather interesting :)
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i bet no one has tried it, you should do it and make a discovery thread about it, it may make you famous. take pictures lots of pictures could do just like a lil test on a small part of your crop:mrgreen:
 
marijuanajoe1982

marijuanajoe1982

Well-Known Member
hey man, there could be something to that! Like Panda said, test it out! It sounds like you must be taking a relatively advanced botany class, if this is a subject you are covering. Did you also learn or know of good ways to remove the phloem? It sounds like you are relatively advanced, after all, I think it was you that gave me a scientific name for my tripod plant. I think you should give this a try. Start small though, just a branch or two. Since this method CAN be used to kill plants, just be awful careful if you decide to try it out. Wouldn't want you to actually hurt your crop. Sounds very interesting though, I will look up this "Plant Girdling" you speak of.
 
WormSlayer

WormSlayer

Well-Known Member
It's an interesting idea for sure, though I've never heard of anyone experimenting with it.

FYI: If you google "plant girdling", this thread is the second item, right after the wikipedia entry :P

Edit: Some people in Israel apparently did girdling tests on olives, results seem kind of inconclusive...

[SIZE=+1]The influence of girdling on flower type, number, inflorescence density, fruit set, and yields in three different olive cultivars (Barnea, Picual, and Souri)[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1] A. G. Levin[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] A[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] ,[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] C[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]and [/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] S. Lavee[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] B[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]A Dept of Plant Pathology, Agricultural Research Organization, Gilat Experiment Station, M.P. Negev, 85280, Israel.
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]B Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1]C Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
[/SIZE]

Abstract [SIZE=-1] The influence of girdling on flower type and number, inflorescence density, and fruit set in 3 different olive cultivars (Barnea, Picual, and Souri) under intensive growing conditions using saline irrigation water was studied for 3 years. The density of inflorescences on the branches was not affected by girdling in any of the 3 cultivars during any of the 3 consecutive years studied. Also, no clear relation between the number of flowers and girdling was found in any of the 3 cultivars tested. The percentage of perfect flowers on the girdled scaffolds of cvv. Barnea and Picual increased significantly, except for Picual in 2002 where no differences were observed. However, no such difference between the non-girdled and girdled scaffolds was observed in cv. Souri. Comparison of fruit set on non-girdled and girdled scaffolds showed a similar and generally positive response to the treatment in the examined cultivars. However, in the third year of the study, no significant difference between the non-girdled and girdled scaffolds was observed. A significantly higher yield of the girdled trees was measured in the 3 cultivars during the first year after the winter girdling. Due to the young age of the trees the effect of girdling on yield was not further recorded.
[/SIZE] [SIZE=-1] Fruit size on the girdled scaffolds was smaller than those from the non-girdled ones, as a consequence a higher percentage of fruit set was observed on the first ones. The results presented in this study point to different varietal responses of olive trees to girdling. However, this might also be due to the young age of the trees in this study as well as the peculiar agronomic condition of the trees.[/SIZE]
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WalkedOnTheMoon

Active Member
i'm going to try and get a cross section of the stem under a scope so i can tell how the best way to remove it would be. i guess in theory the more leaves on the stem you strip the phloem off of the more sugars going directly to the buds on the branch.
 
NewGrowth

NewGrowth

Well-Known Member
Super cropping would be the closest to what you are talking about. Girdling can only be done on trees as it involves removing the outer layer of bark to kill the tree or a branch over time.
 
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WalkedOnTheMoon

Active Member
girdling can not only be done on trees... it is really only the process of removing a ring of phloem on a plant... the reason it is easier to do on trees obviously is because your phloem is part of your bark which just breaks right off, but i would imagine if you made a a cut all the way around at just the right depth, it is essentially the same as de-barking a tree.
 
nozthedon

nozthedon

Well-Known Member
this is what people thought they did to acapulco gold to give it its color but it was just the plants genes
 
NewGrowth

NewGrowth

Well-Known Member
WalkedOnTheMoon said:
girdling can not only be done on trees... it is really only the process of removing a ring of phloem on a plant... the reason it is easier to do on trees obviously is because your phloem is part of your bark which just breaks right off, but i would imagine if you made a a cut all the way around at just the right depth, it is essentially the same as de-barking a tree.
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It would be like micro surgery on something other than a tree so yeah it might be possible but no one is doing it on anything other then woody plants.
 
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