As some of you know, I post a research update every three months or so on Susan Harris’ blog www.sustainable-gardening.com as well as on GardenRant. This update reviews scientific articles which might be useful to gardeners. Anyway, I just finished up a new edition earlier this week — which will probably be posted soon — that included one of the more interesting articles that I’ve seen recently. For my post today I thought I’d spend just a couple of paragraphs telling you about it. Unfortunately it’s not one that is readily available online, so I’ll give you the reference at the end of this article, but few of you will be able to see it without going to some effort.
So, what is this article about that has me so excited? Well, OK, excited might not be the word — amused might be a better word. So what is this article about that has me so amused? It’s about rubbing African violets with gloved hands or non-gloved hands treated with body lotion (Simply Basic Melon Delight Body Lotion). A researcher went to the trouble of rubbing these plants with their hands for 30 or 90 seconds at a time, 3 times a week, and then measuring plant response. And the results? Plants without any rubbing did best, followed by rubbing with a gloved hand, followed by rubbing with hand-lotion treated hands. And yes, 90 seconds of rubbing was worse than 30 seconds.
So, what does this research mean to you? Actually it probably has important implications for the African Violet industry and those who work in it, but to me it just reinforces the idea that plants are not pets…..
The Article: Brotton, J. C., and J. C. Cole. 2009. Brushing using a hand coated with body lotion or in a latex glove decreases African violet plant quality and size. HortTechnology 19:613-616.