Toughen Stalks with a Fan?

If I put a light breeze from a small fan on my plants will it toughen up the stalks? They all [except the dwarfs] seem to fall over fairly easy. I'm talking about 5"-10" plants in general. They are in the house.

[TZ-OH6]

Yes, but it will also cause them to suck water out of the pots quickly. I usually just brush across them with my hand a couple of times a day.

[Stepheninky]

vibration from music from my understanding will also help with this

[ddsack]

I leave an oscillating fan on them most of the day, turn off at night. Yes, it does dry the surface of the soil faster, but it's well worth the resulting thicker sturdiness of the stems. When you think about it, there is almost always some kind of breeze in outdoor conditions, so this is also a good way to make them a bit less fragile for hardening off.

[carolyn137]

The phenonmenon of plant response to touch is called thigmotropism and was first noticed when plants along narrow aisles in commercial greenhouses grew more sturdy that those in the back. It turned out that the workers were brushing up against those plants when watering and that touching of the plants was the result that gave the better plants.

The Cornell Coop Ext suggested that commercial farmers do the same by running a broom handle over the young plants a couple of times a day. And my commercial friend Charlie who has 28 greenhouses did it for about a week and then said &(^%$, no more.

But his plants are gorgeous anyway and all the ones I grew at his place were as well, but then the spot he gave me every year was in front of a huge exhaust fan at the far end of greehouse # 19.

I don't know if it will work on plants as tall as you mention for it should be started pretty soon after the first transplant from the seed pans into plastic cells or whatever.

[Worth1]

Its common practice around my house to set the young plants on the floor close to my dogs tail.
Then I sing to the dog and the wagging of the tail brushes the plants thusly making them stronger.
Another option is the occasional brushing of the cats tail.
Regardless of what method you use I have found that the tail method seems to be far superior to the fan method.

On still days with no wind a person might toy with the idea of putting the plants in the back of a pickup truck for a ride around town.

The politically correct way to practice the fine art of stiffening up the stems.
Haul your plants down to the monthly town hall meetings and let the local wind bags do the work.
Don't do this over an extended period because of the hot air that is inherently generated during such events.
If you have children you could put a sign up saying, (please do not touch the plants) Children and people in general tend to not obey signs.

But to answer the question, 'yes, fans, tails, wind bags, and so on will make the plant stronger.

Worth

[heirloomdaddy]

Hey Carolyn-

Wouldn't this be more accurately described as thigmomorphogensis? Thigmotropism should imply a change in orientation or growth direction toward mechanical stimuli, no? That has been my understanding.

Either way, I just try to give my plants a good jostling every now and again

Originally Posted by carolyn137

The phenonmenon of plant response to touch is called thigmotropism and was first noticed when plants along narrow aisles in commercial greenhouses grew more sturdy that those in the back. It turned out that the workers were brushing up against those plants when watering and that touching of the plants was the result that gave the better plants.

The Cornell Coop Ext suggested that commercial farmers do the same by running a broom handle over the young plants a couple of times a day. And my commercial friend Charlie who has 28 greenhouses did it for about a week and then said &(^%$, no more.

But his plants are gorgeous anyway and all the ones I grew at his place were as well, but then the spot he gave me every year was in front of a huge exhaust fan at the far end of greehouse # 19.

I don't know if it will work on plants as tall as you mention for it should be started pretty soon after the first transplant from the seed pans into plastic cells or whatever.

Originally Posted by Worth1

.
Then I sing to the dog . snipWorth

Luciano, is that you? But your dead...?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Priceless. To bad he was off key, he could have been a star.

[FILMNET]

Gods invention, an overheard fan is wonderful, sorry our dog will not sing..

[OneoftheEarls]

I do something similar as Worth but I use Goldfish....a dog wags much longer

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by heirloomdaddy

Hey Carolyn-

Wouldn't this be more accurately described as thigmomorphogensis? Thigmotropism should imply a change in orientation or growth direction toward mechanical stimuli, no? That has been my understanding.

Either way, I just try to give my plants a good jostling every now and again

Yup, thigmomorphogenesis would be a better way of describing it but I honestly wasn't even aware of that word so had to look it up, for I've always just used thigmotropism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thigmomorphogenesis

Learn something new every day, so thanks.