FORCING POTATOES

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 April 1937, Page 4

FORCING POTATOES

EFFECT OF SOUND WAVES. About ten years ago two Americans began to explore the neglected region of ultra-sounds —sounds so high that no ear can hear them. Since then it has been' found that these unheard vibrations can kill bacteria and perform extraordinary feats (writes Waklemar Kaempl’fert in the "New York Times”).

Just out of sheer curiosity, it seems, the High Frequency Laboratory of the Central Institute of Roentgenology and Radiology of Moscow thought it woti'ld sec what effect these ultra-sound’ waves have on the growth of potatoes. The results were presented before the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

Potato tubers or seeds were placed in a water-filled glass vessel. Since sound waves raise the temperature and heat, always forces' plants to grow rapidly, the experimenter changed the water from time to time. Of course* control tubers were grown in another vessel of water for the same length of time. Ultra sounds made potatoes grow more rapidly, it was 1 found. The average increase in growth was 16.7 per cent., with occasional records of 30 per cent. When thin glass containers were used the increase sometimes ran up to 68 per c;.ut. Treatments lasted from fifteen seconds to one minute at a time, and were carried out from one to five months before planting. With potato seeds the results wore even better. Crops .were larger by 21.3 to 15.5 per cent. Blooms appeared on the average seven days earlier than usual. At first the plants shot dp and overtopped the controls. But in the end the controls were taller.