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Montoursville, PA

Last summer we put exactly five pounds of good garden soil in a pot. We then planted a Pattio Tomatoe. It grew and produced, by kitchen scale records nine pounds, of fruit and about two pounds, of stalk and vine. The stalk and vine included the major roots pulled from the pot. A few hair roots remained. We added no fertilizer in any form all year.

The soil weighed exactly the same at the end of the growing period as the day we planted. Where the heck did the eleven pounds of real stalk and tomatoes come from?

3/18/2005 11:17:44 AM

Western NY

my guess -almost all was water weight. some will come from turning CO2 into carbohydrates, and only a trace gets pulled out of the soil.

the only question in your method i have is the soil weight before and after. was that dry weight? the moisture content could change the weight a lot.

this experiment was done a long time ago, but with a tree in a bathtub. it lasted years. i forget the details of the experiment, but it was similar to yours. maybe someone faster than me can dig that info up.

3/18/2005 12:41:34 PM

Western NY

found it! with a much better description than i could have given.

http://helmont1.tripod.com/HelmontABT91.htm

3/18/2005 1:04:38 PM

Deer Park WA

The extra weight came from the power of the seedling; nutrients from the soil; the water your hands provided; and Gods miracle.

How did the fruit taste Doc?

3/19/2005 10:04:36 PM

Montoursville, PA

It's so simple. The Inputs had to be from the elements of nature namely wind, water, sunlight and windblown solids. The before and after weights were not measured with anything measuring water content except human touch and a term I called the same or very similar dampness.

Actually if this was done with scientific care the soil may have gained an insignificant bit, of weight because the biological content grows and dies. The biological life at any one time would be within certain ranges but the dead bodies of spent parts would remain in the pot until converted, used and expelled as a gas.

Oh......the Pattio Tomatoes tasted just like Pattio Tomatoes. It does not take much to amuse me. There was a resident worm in that pot that survived the summer.

Thanks Andy..........I heard of that sucker but never saw the article. I now have the magic growing, in a huge pot. It is now producing real lemons. I will replace the greenhouse poisoned soil, on first repotting and turn this great house plant loose, to really do it's thing. We feed all, of our house plants with a rotation, of aerobic tea, anaerobic tea and worm cast tea offered monthly. When repotting we add a worm or two. Haven't lost or failed to get good growth from a house plant for years....a lot of years. :)

3/20/2005 5:49:55 PM

oswego, NY

The Jean Baptiste van Helmont tree experiment: used willow tree,removed soil and wieghed it; planted tree in pot of measured soil; tree grew for 5 yrs; measured amt water. He weighed tree again & it increased 74 kg while soil decreased 57 kg. Basically proved plants get materials from air as well as soil. Basic experiment to introduce photosynthesis.

3/22/2005 5:35:14 PM