the science of sweet
Before the development of refined
sugar, if you wanted something
sweet, you had limited options.
Either you needed access to honey,
or more likely, you used
fresh or dried fruit. In fact,
that brick of fruitcake in
the back of your freezer is
an excellent example of
old-style English baking
that used the concentrated
sugars, fructose and glucose
in dried fruit to sweeten
cakes and pies back when
fruit was one of the few
sources of sugar available.
This is an example of the
value of fruit in the human
diet. It’s everywhere, from
our morning juice to the
flavorings we love in ice
cream and yogurt. It’s sweet
and full of nutrients, too.
Ethylene is so essential
to ripening it has
been nicknamed the
senescence hormone."
Maximum Yield USA | January 2015
Ethylene Gas and Ripening
The process that ripens fruits and
vegetables is actually pretty complex, and
even today some aspects of plant development and
fruiting are not completely understood. We do know ethylene is one of the biggest contributors to ripening. Increasing
concentrations of this hormone, a hydrocarbon gas, signal
cells to enter senescence, the ripening phase of development
(from the Latin for “growing old”). Ethylene is so essential
to ripening it has been nicknamed the senescence hormone.
You’ve probably used it yourself to artificially ripen slightly
green tomatoes or rock-hard avocados by placing them near
fruits like apples and bananas that release high concentrations of ethylene.
A number of contributing factors can trigger plants to
release increased levels of ethylene gas and encourage
fruiting, including high temperatures, injuries to the plant,
harvesting of the fruit (in some instances) and even the
presence of some types of micro-organisms.
Vermicompost is generated by the
decomposition of organic substances by worms, with the final compost
containing essential elements.
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You may take it for granted, but
wholesome, plump fruit doesn’t
happen by accident.