Back to Basics: Plant Development & Life Cycles
- Minerva Llamas
- Sep 1, 2016
- 2 min read
Let's start from the beginning and take time to understand your home garden's growth and development process.
The four basic plant development stages are:
1) Seed germination and seedling growth: The stage in which you begin to see the plant put out shoots.
2) Juvenility: The stage in which branches develop and new leaves continue to grow; flowering has not yet occurred.
3) Maturity: Beginning of flowering and fruiting.
4) Senescence: The decline of the plant.
You might be wondering how to get from step 2, juvenility, to step 3, maturity, how do you get a plant to flower? Two of the most important factors for flowering are day-length and temperature.
Day length impacts the illumination plants are exposed to.
Some plants are short-day plants, this means that they require shorter days and longer nights. Other plants are long-day plants, which means that they flower when the days are longer and nights are shorter. Then there are day-neutral plants, which do not take day length into flowering considerations.
Temperature affects the speed of flowering
Higher temperatures may initiate flowering, but that does not mean hot temperatures are ideal for all plants. Take a look at your plant's photoperiod (day-length) and temperature (chilling) requirements before planting.
It is also important to understand your plant's life cycle completion. The different types of plants are annual plants, biennials, and perennials. This determines how may growing seasons are required to complete a life cycle.
A plant's life cycle consists of the following:
Annual plants complete their life cycle in one growing season.
Biennials complete their life cycle in TWO growing seasons. In the first growing season you collect the fruit or vegetable and in the second growing season you collect the seed.
examples: cabbage, carrots, parsley, lettuce, onions
Perennials complete their life cycle in more than two growing seasons. During the winter, the stems and leaves of herbaceous perennials die but grow back in the spring.
examples of herbaceous perennials: asparagus, rhubarb, some herbs
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