Gardening With Allen: Learn the language of plants

A friend recently told me her plants talk to her. I thought she was joking but she was serious. What is your opinion?

Plants don’t verbally speak but they do communicate in many ways. Probably the most important way they communicate is by wilting. Leaves lose their normal upright position and actually droop. This is their way of saying, “Help, give me a drink!”

Plants have an internal cooling system similar to human’s perspiration or sweating. Water is pumped from the roots through veins to the leaves. As the water evaporates through the leaf pores, it cools the plant. When there is not enough water available to do this, the newest leaves wilt and progressively other leaves wilt until the whole plant can wilt. If this wilting goes on long enough the leaves burn and develop brown sections and finally the whole leaf turns brown and falls off. It is important to watch for wilting symptoms on newly planted plants until they have developed enough of a root system to sustain the plant.

Plants also communicate when they are hungry for nutrients supplied by fertilizer.

When older leaves turn yellow, it is a sign that the plant is short of enough nitrogen, so it is transferring nitrogen from the older leaves to the new growth.

When the new growth is yellow with dark green veins, the plant is signaling a shortage of iron. A purplish leaf color in tomato plants can indicate a shortage of phosphorus.

Yellow leaves can also indicate that sucking insects are feeding on the bottom of the leaf and removing materials that make the leaf green.

The main purpose the plant is pursuing is to reproduce itself. So the plant shows when it is happily fulfilling its purpose by producing flowers and seeds.

Deciduous plants tell us that colder weather is coming by dropping their leaves. This is part of their preparation for colder weather by going into dormancy. When I moved here from a colder climate I noticed that the same trees that grew in both locations were losing their leaves in the fall at about the same time. I thought, “It is not cold enough for them to lose their leaves.” Then I remembered that I had learned that plants lose their leaves and grow new ones based on day length, not temperature. Day length is a much more reliable indicator and protects the plant in those years when it stays mild well into the fall, followed by a sudden large drop in temperature.

So if we pay close attention to our plants we will notice changes that are communicating or “talking” to us.

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