Sunflowers?

[woodbloke]

Now that the end of Sept is almost upon us, does anyone know what to do to harvest the seeds, do I just let them dry naturally or what? Any ideas or is going to be too much bother to process the seed heads? - Rob

 

[Philly]

Ooh, good question. We've got two massive heads just dying off- be interested to know what to do, too.
Philly

 

[Slim]

Mrs Green Fingers (about 2/3 down) :wink:

 

[mr]

Harvest the seeds and let them dry in a brown paper bag for replanting next year
Cheers Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Anyone know how do they track the sun during the day?

I mean the actual biological mechanism that is at work. Something I and my research students have tried to find out from time to time but found nothing yet

Any one know?

 

[Slim]

Tony, It is because they are Heliotropic.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Simon

Don't suppose you have seen any in-depth studies at all? We are hoping to replicate this action, possibly in colaboration with our polymer reseearch group

 

[Slim]

No sorry Tony. I'm sure there will be lots about. I do know someone who did their dissertation on Heliotropism but its probably not what your after.

What are you hoping to replicate it with?

 

[Anonymous]

No sorry Tony. I'm sure there will be lots about. I do know someone who did their dissertation on Heliotropism but its probably not what your after.

What are you hoping to replicate it with?

I have found away to significantly increase the efficiency of very small solar panels (+35%) and want to develop a tracking system to boost this further. I want it to use chemical energy rather than electrical energy for the tracking system. We want to track the sun during the day and reset at night.

 

[mr]

From my bio engineer skin 'n blister
"its a mechanical process whereby plants redirect fluids within themselves to alter the turgor of cells thus causing movement.(ie one side of stem hard other less so causes twisting its quite smart actually. You can do an experiment to show this with sugar solution and plant stem cut in half."

Though you probably knew that already.

Cheers Mike

 

[Slim]

Tony, I just caught the end of a program on Solar Tres in Spain. It is a solar power plant that uses hundreds of heliostat mirrors which reflect sunlight onto a single focal point. The heat is used to power a steam turbine.

As the mirrors track the sun through the sky, I thought you might be interested. I have no idea how they do it though as I only saw the end of the program.

 

[Woodmagnet]

I saw that the other week Simon, it was quite interesting. :wink: