Stems: Whats the Story?

Often times some of the college classes that you take that at the time you wonder if you will ever apply in your life have a funny thing of coming back to you. Much of what I have learned regarding growing plants has come from my mother. She always had what seemed like hundreds of plants, mostly potted, growing and she taught me how to cut back, train, stake and nourish the plants. I had my first experience with Miracle Grow in elementary school.

I always enjoyed the whole biology thing regarding plants. Why some would grow and some would not. Why some would need more nitrogen than others. What the whole "zones" thing was regarding all the gardening catalogs we would get in the mail. In college, I had an opportunity to take some biology classes at the survey level but also managed to squeeze in an upper level Cell Biology class. My class was full of Bio majors and I think there was only two of us who were not. The class was probably on of the most interesting outside my major I ever took as an "elective".

In terms of Hops, the class has provided me some basic knowledge regarding the mechanisms at play with the plant. The Stem for example is very important. They are a part of the shoot system. Stems almost always come in various sizes and thickness depending on the plant. They typically grow above ground and may either be soft-like or woody.

The main function of a Stem is to provide support but also to hold the leaves, flowers or even buds. They are the transport system that ties the nourishment of the plant from the root system to the leaves and the flowers. In the case of Hops, these are the cones that develop.

Stems are characterized by the presence of nodes and internodes. Nodes are the area where you will see the leaves and flowers develop. Internodes is the space between two nodes along the stem growth. The growth that you will see extending from Stem and node area to the leaf is referred to as the petiole. The Petiole can provide researchers with the amount of nitrogen being  supplied the leaves through the stem and root system and can demonstrate any nutritional deficiencies .

 

The budding area- often an axillary- can be identified between the base of leaves and the stem—where it can give rise to the flower. 

 

What is known as the Apical Meristem is a point at which if severed the plant will no longer grow vertically, though the plant will continue to grow horizontally in the case of Hops. This is how we work those hops that are being grown on smaller Trellis System once the reach the max height of the trellis. The plant will still develop below the existing canopy of leaves, but will no longer climb any higher as the growth comes directly from this point of the plant as it matures.

 

The stems will be hardier for the most part than the horizontal growth that will be experienced. The strength of the Stem usually seems to develop from the ground up in large part because of the support it must provide the developing canopy of leaves being producing. These leaves for Hops are produced during the "vegetative" phase and throughout the summer will lead to what is called the "flowering" stage at which point cones ( the Hops themselves) will begin to develop.