Here is a time lapse of a Broad bean showing hypogeal germination and root growth.

Hypogeal
‘Hypogeal’ means ‘underground’. 
This is when the cotyledons of the germinating seed / bean remain below ground.
salts in the soil.

Roots and root hairs
The main functions of root are:
Absorption of water and nutrients,
Fixation of the plant to the soil,
Root bears unicellular root hairs.

Conduction of water and nutrients to aerial parts of plants

Root cap.

It is a cap-like structure at the tip of root. It cover and protects the growing point from injury as it pushes through the soil.

Filmed by Neil Bromhall www.complete-gardens.co.yk

More of my time-lapse sequences can be found on Youtube

Garden software encyclopaedia with 3,500 garden plants and 9,000 photographs please see www.complete-gardens.co.uk

Tomato blight is weather-dependent and can be devastating during wet summers. Watch out for signs on outdoor tomatoes, which are most at risk; glasshouse tomatoes are less likely to become infected though the spores are carried in the wind and will enter through open windows and doors.

Tomato blight on leaf

Early Blight can affect the foliage, stems and fruit of tomatoes.

Symptoms: Dark spots with concentric rings develop on older leaves first. The surrounding leaf area may turn yellow. Affected leaves may die prematurely, exposing the fruits to sun scorching.
Management: Early Blight fungus overwinters in plant residue and is soil-borne. It can also come in on transplants. Remove affected plants and thoroughly clean fall garden debris. Wet weather and weak stressed plants increase the likelihood of attack. Copper and/or sulfur sprays can prevent further development of the fungus
Late Blight is caused by a fungus, Phytophthora infestans. It’s the same disease that led to the Irish potato famine almost 150 years ago.

The disease is not directly harmful to people as it only infects potatoes, tomatoes, and some related weeds, but it is not advised to eat the infected fruit or tubers.
It is important to catch any tomato disease early, before it spreads to all of your tomato plants and possibly other plants in the same family, such as potatoes, eggplants and peppers.
Look for brown, rapidly spreading patches on leaves and stems. The fruit, too, may show firm, quickly spreading brown patches followed by rotting. Infected parts die rapidly.
Destroy infected plants; but do not compost them as the plant residue is soil-borne and will spread the disease to your next years crop.
Late blight needs living plant tissue to survive, so infected tomato plants should be destroyed as soon as the disease is identified. In small gardens, this means removing plants in trash bags and sending them to the landfill;

By Time-lapse by Neil Bromhall www.complete-gardens.co.uk

Akebia quinata flower

Akebia quinata

Common name: Chocolate Vine (5 leaflets)

A fast growing semi-evergreen twining woody vine, with lovely, lush green rounded leaves with 5 leaflets, underside of leaves blue-green colour, tinged purple in winter.

Produces clusters of small trailing chocolate purple coloured spicy, vanilla fragrant flowers. The small three petaled flowers bloom from March to April.

Akebia quinata seed pods

 After a long hot summer the 5 inch – 9cm long purple-violet sausage shaped edible fruits split open when ripe in early autumn.

Akebia quinata splitting seed pod

 Two varieties of Akebia must be planted in order to obtain fruits.

An unusual and delightful climbing plant.

Fully hardy can withstand temp down to -15°C

Akebia quinata seeds

 Lightly cover the seeds with a mixture of loamy soil and coarse sand.

Keep lightly moist.  May take 1 – 3 months to gernminate.

Fast growing.  Full sun or partial sun. Hardy to 24 degrees.

* Common name: Chocolate Vine.

* Position: Sun or partial shade.

* Soil: Moist yet well drained, fertile soil.

* Hardiness: Hardy. Akebia quinata is semi-evergreen and will drop its leaves in a cold winter.

* Flowering Period: April – May.

* Rate of Growth: Vigorous.

* Habit: Large climbing plant which requires support as it will not self-cling. Height: 8 – 10 m (26 – 32 ft) Spread: 2 m (6 ft)

* Notes: Akebia quinata is ideal for climbing up trellis or supporting wires on a wall or fence.

For more planting advice please see www.complete-gardens.co.uk

Here is a time-lapse of an Artichoke flower. I think it’s fascinating.

Filmed on a 35mm Nikon D300 digital camera.

Filmed over a period of two days

I add my time-lapses of plants, vegetables, flowers etc. to Youtube. I hope you find the different flower shapes and designs interesting.

I think that the artichoke flower fascinating.

Here is a time-lapse of a runner bean germinating underground. This is an example of Epigeal germination where the cotyledons expand, throw off the seed shell and become photosynthetic above the ground.

Beans like other seeds need temperature and moisture to stimulate germination.

Stage 1:
Radicle expands and pushes against the testa at the micropyle
Testa spilts open and radicle emerges
Lateral roots develop
Root hairs form behind tip of radicle which helps absorb water and mineral salts in the soil

Stage 2
Stem below cotyledons elongates
Pulling cotyledon through soil and above the ground
Sometimes the is testa remains underground or discarded above ground
Cotyledons are closed together to protect the delicate pumule within

Stage 3
Cotyledons open up above ground
Cotyledons turn green
First foliage leaves start to develop
Foliage expands and turns green carrying out photosynthesis
Runner bean seedling is now a self-supporting plant

This and other of my time-lapses can be found on You tube http://www.youtube.com/user/neilbromhall

Time-lapse copyright Neil Bromhall.  www.complete-gardens.co.uk

This time-lapse shows an Echinops flowering over a period of 5 days.

The flowers don’t open one go but rather come out in succession to preven self pollination and to ensure that dispite of the weather some of the flowers will be cross pollinated by visiting insects.

Flower design is wide and varied. I will be adding more time lapse flowers to show interesting flower and flower shapes.

Aphids are attracted to the tender new growth. Here is a time-lapse of rose leaf bud growing and as it does becomes infested with aphids.

At the end of the sequence, one of the natural aphid preditors the hoverfly larva comes in and eats most if not all of the aphids.

This shows just how efficient hoverfly larvae are at controlling aphids.

The sequence was filmed over a period of 24 hrs.

Here is a time-lapse of a new variety of rose by Robert Mattock.

It’s so new it’s not been named yet.

The Dandelion is considered a garden weed yet I think they are rather beautiful, especially  when you see the flowers and seed head opening in time-lapse.