A simple and common way to water plants is to hold a garden pipe (管子) and let the water fall down directly on the plants and soil. This is a good choice that does not waste water. It also can help prevent plant disease. But a garden pipe is not the only way to water your plants.

The When and How of Watering

【小题1】 This lets the water go deeply into the soil before the weather gets too hot. If you water late in the day, the water will just evaporate (蒸发) from the surface. If you water in the evening, the plants stay too wet overnight.

How you water is just as important as when you water. If you water quickly every day, it does not help the roots, which can spread over 30 centimeters into the soil. Water the soil less often, but deeply. Be careful when watering very dry soil because the water will just run off without getting into the soil. 【小题2】

Collect and Reuse Water

One way to help keep costs low for watering is to use used water. Instead of emptying water out after boiling foods, keep it and reuse it to water plants. 【小题3】 You can also catch and use rainwater.

Choose Native Plants

Most gardeners just think about which plants look good and the plants’ sunlight needs. 【小题4】 Drought-resistant (抗旱的) plants should not be overwatered when trying to keep thirstier plants watered.

It is also best to use plants that are native (当地的) to the area where you live. These plants are likely to be resistant to drought. 【小题5】 After that, they can live on just rainwater except for during times of extreme heat.

New research has revealed something amazing: it appears that plants can communicate after all.

It has been known for some time that plants use chemicals to communicate with each other. This happens when a plant, say a bean plant, gets attacked by insects. The plant releases tiny amounts of chemicals from the leaves that are being eaten. This is like a warning, or a call for help:“I’m being attacked!” When another bean plant detects the chemicals from its injured neighbour, it starts to release its own different chemicals. Some of these chemicals drive insects away. Others attract insects—the wasps(黄蜂)! The wasps kill the insects that are eating the bean plants. Scientists hope to learn more about this plant warning system, so that we can use it to grow crops without pesticides.

More surprisingly, plants also use sound to communicate. People can’t hear these sounds, but plants are making them. Some plants make noises with their roots. Con and chilli plants do this. They also “listen” to the noises from other plants. Achilli plant can tell if a neighbouring plant is helpful, or unfriendly. Some trees make clicking noises when there is not enough water, indicating drought is arriving.

Most surprisingly of all, plants have an amazing system of communication that can link nearly every plant in a forest. Scientists call this system the “wood wide web”. It is in some ways similar to the Internet we use. While the Internet is a worldwide network of computers linked by cables and satellites, the wood wide web is linked underground by fungi(真菌). This fungal network links the roots of different plants to each other. Using the wood wide web, plants can share information and even food with each other. For example, some pine trees can send food to smaller pine trees to help them grow. But just like our own Internet, the wood wide web has its own version of “cyber crime”. Plants can steal food from each other, or spread poisons to attack other plants. Perhaps one day scientists will learn how to create a “firewall” to help prevent these attacks within the wood wide web.

Scientists are learning more every day about the secret ways in which plants talk to each other. Who knows? Maybe one day we will know enough about plant communication to be able to “talk” with them ourselves.

“Consumers complain that the modern tomato has little flavor. It’s like a water bomb,” said Sanwen Huang, who works at the Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. “Tomato farmers care about yield, and the genetic variants related to yield are not related to tasty tomato favors.”

How can farmers ditch this unpleasant thing and recover the rich, sweet flavor of the tomato? To find out, Huang and colleagues investigated which genes are related to tomatoes’ taste. The scientists created a 100-person group that sampled 160 tomatoes based on sensory qualities. Based on the group’s feedback, the researchers identified dozens of chemical compounds (化合物) that could be related to the tomato’s taste. Using a statistical model that determined the concentration of various chemicals in the tomatoes, the scientists identified 33 most important flavor compounds. The researchers then measured the content of them in each of the tomatoes, and identified about 250 genetic loci (基因座) that controlled tomato flavor. This finding revealed the genetic basis of tomato flavor.

But the researchers also wanted to determine why store-bought tomatoes don’t taste good. It turns out that modern tomato varieties are selected according to qualities such as big size because buyers prefer large fruit, and firmness because it makes tomatoes easier to ship. Meanwhile, the quality of flavor has been ignored, said the researchers.

Volatiles (挥发性物质), in particular, are essential for good flavor. The removal of specific volatiles from tomatoes results in significant reduction in people’s liking. Moreover, refrigeration can change a tomato’s volatile compounds.

“But there is hope for a future filled with tasty, new varieties of store-bought tomatoes, as our results provide a road map for improvement of flavor. By working together, geneticists, biochemists, farmers and customers can provide better-flavored tomatoes for our society.” Huang said.