Happy Halloween! A biologists view of Halloween

Halloween is one of those weird "holidays" no one really knows why we do it.  And oddly, I'm going to try and give a biological perspective to it.  Often we think of the celebration of death or the occult and all the weird things that center around those as the "reason" for Halloween.  Fortunately, that isn't entirely true, though their is that element of it.  Our version of Halloween in the United States today is really a hodge-podge of all sorts of holidays from all over the world.  Historically, Halloween like celebrations were much closer to Thanksgiving celebration except with more singing, dancing, games, and fun stuff like that.  Many cultures have their own version of the holiday to celebrate the end of and abundance of the harvest season.  This is partially where all the pumpkins come in being they often are harvested in October.  So the end of the harvest which does line-up well with the end of October is a great biological perspective we can have of Halloween.  Honestly, Thanksgiving in the end of November is far too late to be celebrating the summers harvest (OK just my opinion!).

Jack-o-lanterns obviously are a well established Halloween traditions that also rooted in the harvest celebration.  This tradition was founded in Britain and Ireland during the 1800's.  For hundreds of years prior to this people made turnip lanterns, which seems much less exciting and much more difficult to make.  These vegetable lanterns were part of a pagan form of trick-or-treating.

One of the latest Halloween traditions, and one of the most exciting I think, is the growing of gigantic pumpkins.  People that grow monster pumpkins learn all kinds of secrets about how to breed and grow these giants.  The entire process can be quite intense and people have been producing pumpkins over 1000 pounds for many years now.  Competitive growing of pumpkins is advancing in the United States so fast that world records are made nearly every year.  This fall the world record was broken again with a 1810 pound gourd!  It won't many years before a 2000 pound is grown.

"Everything you want to know about pumpkins"

http://www.backyardgardener.com/pumkin.html

http://www.foodmuseum.com/halloween.html

Dentists also give us another perspective on Halloween.  As you would guess, they hate it because too much candy really does rot the teeth.  But several dental studies have asked the question, "How can we eat trick-or-treat candy and not rot our teeth?"  Common sense tells us that maybe if you eat it a little bit every night it will be better for you.  In this case however common sense is wrong and research has shown it is better to gorge yourself and eat it all in one night.  Which I am sure most people want to do but rather use some misguided "common sense."  When I tell people this they say, "Of course, then you will get sick and never want to eat it again."  While there probably is some truth to that, the real reason dentists say it is better to eat it in one night is because then your teeth are only covered in sugar for one night as opposed to being covered in a little sugar every night for a longer time.  Here is an article on the subject:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45080807/ns/health-childrens_health/#.Tqsl50Mr2so

Amazing Trees of Life

Good news for trees and everyone else.  A lot of recent scientific research has indicated that forests, and of course the trees that compose them, will absorb a lot more of the atmospheres carbon dioxide than initially thought.  Ten or more years ago it was thought that trees could absorb a lot of the carbon dioxide put off by burning fossil fuels and thus off set global warming.  A few years later some research indicated that trees and forests would not absorb much at all.  Now however, after many years of research we have many well documented studies that show trees will in-fact absorb quite a bit of the carbon dioxide.  Several studies now show they will likely absorb about one-third of it, which is quite a lot.  What makes this research different from prior research?  These studies are based on a decade or more of research, are very large scale, and have been supported by other studies, making them far stronger then previous conclusions. Not only that, some of this research indicates trees will be able to adapt to and even clean increased air pollution.  Of course this does not mean we shouldn't try to decrease burning of fossil fuels or pollution. These are still problems and we still need to work on decreasing these things. Even so, this is great news!  And not just in regards to slowing climate change and pollution, but also to ecosystem restoration and pollution control, among numerous other things.  

Check out these articles:

Future Forests May Soak Up More Carbon Dioxide Than Previously Believed

World's Forests' Role in Carbon Storage Immense, Research Reveals

What’s good for trees and the atmosphere is good for people.  It’s not by mistake that the Bible’s beginning and end involves the Tree of Life.  Trees are in-fact integral, life-giving parts of the biosphere.  The diverse variety of environmental and anthropological benefits they preform and produce is truly astounding.  While they are living and growing trees clean water and air, absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, hold soil together preventing erosion and building the soil, help drive the water cycle, provide shade, cooler temperatures and regulate climate, provide food for man and animal, provide homes for a huge diversity of organisms, aid groundwater recharge and retain soil water, slow winds, and of course provide an amazing amount of beauty.  Take the time to patiently and closely examine the delicate details of leaves, the organization and strength of the trunk and branches, and the overall touch, smell, and sound of the tree.  A prolonged observation of a mature tree will clearly reveal its overall beauty.  

Fall White Oak leaves.

Even in death trees provide life.  Of course when we cut down a tree it provides fuel and building materials.  But even a dead tree in the forest supports life in the forest.  Dead trees replenish the soil and provide insects, fungi, birds, and animals all homes and places to hide or perch.  Amazingly, sometimes dead trees even support more life in their death than they do in their life.

In light of all this, while I don’t suggest leaving dead trees in your home landscape, I do suggest we all plant trees.  You can leave the dead trees in your yard if you want through!  Planting trees is an excellent activity for anyone of any age.  Obviously it will be hugely beneficial to the landscape, environment, and you personally.  Homeowners who plant trees increase the value of their home, provide beauty for their yard, and can shade and cool their home lowering energy costs among other things.  Also, taking the time to learn how to plant a tree, prune it, care for it, watch it grow, and enjoy it are some of the simple educational pleasures of life that anyone can do.  

The reality is, while we do know a decent amount about trees there are still vast amounts of knowledge we still do not know.  Simply choosing one species of tree, say a Sugar Maple, you could spend your life learning new things about it that no one ever knew.  Reading what is already known about the tree, observing how it grows, its habits, where it grows, and conducting simple experiments with it (such as how to germinate the seeds best) could make anyone willing to make the effort, an expert on that particular tree.  Great education, beauty, and environmental benifits truly can be only as far as your own backyard.

Carrots: another easy garden veggie

Multicolored carrots.  Picture from Wikipedia. 

Carrots are one of the easiest cool season garden veggies and just about everyone likes carrots to some degree.  For the beginning gardener, carrots should be one of the first plants you try out.  In my experience, they are relatively pest free, can be grown in abundance in even a small area, don't require lots of water, and are overall very low maintenance.  About 1200 years ago carrots were first domesticated in the mountains of modern day Iran and Afghanistan.  These original carrots were not the nice long orange roots we think of Bugs Bunny eating.  Rather, they were thick, often branching roots and were purple, red, or yellow.  Overtime, the single long carrot root was developed by farmers and gardeners.  Orange roots didn't, however, develop until about 300-400 years ago in Europe.  Today, most carrot varieties are single rooted and the most common is obviously orange, but red, yellow, white, purple, and various shades in-between still exist.  Today, multicolored carrots are most common in the Middle East.  Carrots are very healthy both raw and cooked.  They are loaded with far more vitamin A than our bodies can absorb, only 3% is absorbed when eaten raw while 39% when cooked.  Carrots also are a healthy source of calories.

Of course, as children we were all told that if we ate our carrots we would be able to see in the dark.  Unfortunately, this is not true even though vitamin A does help eye site.  The connection of carrots to night vision was developed during World War II by the British armed forces.  In order to trick the Germans, and cover-up their discovery of radar for detecting and shooting down German bombers at night, the British military spread rumors that they fed their gunmen huge quantities of carrots.  As the rumor went, the carrots improve their night vision so they could see German bombers in the dark and shoot them down.  The gunmen probably never ate large quantities of carrots, but the rumor did fool the Germans and covered up the British discovery of radar.  Even after exposing the rumor after the war, the myth still exists today!

Great website with everything you ever wanted to know and more about carrots: 

The World Carrot Museum

Like I said before, carrots are so easy to grow every garden should have an abundance of them.  The great thing about carrots is that to grow large amounts of them you do not need large amounts of space.  Carrots can easily be spaced about one per square inch, which means potentially 144 carrots could be grown per square foot.  That's a lot of food!  Potentially about eight pounds of carrots in one square foot under the right conditions!  I would like to see some experiments or contests seeing how to grow the most carrots in the least amount of space.  This would be quite interesting and an experiment anyone could do.  Fortunately, carrots are not extremely pick about the soil they are planted in.  As long as the soil is relatively rich with organic matter, relatively loose, and lacks rocks the growing tubers will be happy.  Soils that are dense, rocky, or waterlogged are not good for carrots.  Luckily, you can modify your soil by loosening it, adding compost, or by adjusting drainage and watering.  Also, carrots will grow well in containers if they are deep enough for the root to penetrate.

When planting carrots think cool season.  Here in the Sonoran Desert we can plant carrots from October through early April.  Further north they can be planted a few weeks before the last frost or very late summer.  The great thing about planting carrots is that their tops can withstand temperatures as low as 25 degrees and can overwinter under snow to be harvested in early spring.  Very few plants are as resilient to freezing temperatures.  As a result of this, carrots are also excellent keepers and store extremely well in the refrigerator or cellar for many months.  Also, when planning on growing some carrots, search online for various colors which can make growing at least a little more exciting.  I have grown every color of carrot I know of and found purple and orange grow the best in my soil in the desert.  Other colors may grow better elsewhere though, so test it out.  Each color also has its own distinct taste, though they all still taste like carrots though.  My favorite tasting carrots are also the purple and orange but I know plenty of people that prefer the other colors.  Another thing to try out for yourself!

How to grow carrots:
1. Determine when to plant.  Remember carrots are a cool season plant so they should be planted early spring or very late summer to early fall.  Check your local extension office planting calender.

2. Get your soil ready.  Loosen it up and add compost to about ten inches deep.  Make sure their are not rocks, which will result in deformed your carrots.

3. Planting carrot seeds.  Carrot seeds are tiny so only plant then about 1/4 inch deep at the most.  They can be sown and then gently raked into the soil also.  I find it easiest to sow lots of seeds and then thin them out to about one per square inch after they germinate.  Carrots can take a long time to germinate, so make sure the soil stays moist and wait patiently.  Germination may take up to 20 days or longer in cool conditions.

4. After germination, thin carrots out and water as needed.  Carrots do not need tons of water and do not like waterlogged soil, so beware of over watering.  Often, the surface may look dry so stick you finger into the soil a half inch or so to see if it is wet and in need of watering.

5.  After about 90 days the carrots will be ready to harvest.  Carefully, you can dig around the edges of the root a little and pull the carrot out.  Then all you have to do is rinse them off and store them in a cool place!

One of the things I love about gardening is the ability to "scientifically" test out how to grow things and find what grows best.  Then, mixing this information with growing things you love to eat!  Growing different varieties of carrots is a great way to mix the science with taste!