Plant life

The tomatoes have progressed to the next stage of their lives now. I'll harden them off for a couple of weeks and then we'll cage them. Their leaves are really not tough enough yet to withstand our extreme weather. Hot. Cold. Windy. Maybe even hail. One never knows.

My sister loaned me the book, "The Hidden Life of Trees." Translated from the original German in 2016, and written by Ludwing Verlag. A lot of the book seemed a little incredulous to me, too anthropomorphic (I know, laughable since I anthropomorphize the birds and everything), but.....

For years I've said, mostly in jest. Mostly. That I hate to walk past my trees because they cry and beg for water. I may have mentioned that a time or two in my blog through the years. So imagine my surprise when I read this in the book (page 48):

"When trees are really thirsty, they begin to scream.... , you won't be able to hear them because this all takes place at ultrasonic levels. Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape research recorded the sounds, and this is how they explain them: Vibrations occur in the trunk when the flow of water from the roots to the leaves is interrupted." (Vibrations that work similar to our vocal chords.)

It makes me want to rush down there today and water them. The good news is that trees learn to become drought tolerant, so mine will probably only whimper softly until I get down there in a couple of days.