Do Your Tomatoes Need Sunscreen?
By Michelle Fabio
We’re not the only ones who need protection from the sun’s harmful rays.
Fruits and vegetables are also feeling the burn and the effects are shown in sunspots, blemishes and blisters on their skins, which can turn into decreased sales at the market.
And so one California company is testing an SPF 45 product specially designed to deflect ultraviolet and infrared light from plants but allowing photosynthesis rays they need to ripen.
Tests have taken place in Australia, Chile and California so far, and have shown increased yields because of less heat-related stress on the plants.
When plants get too hot, they perspire just like we do, although it’s called transpiration in them. This means they need more water, and unfortunately growing areas such as Australia and California are increasingly operating under drought conditions.
“I spend a lot of time studying drought,” said Eric Wood, Ph.D., a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University. The expert on hydrology and climate change added, “Under climate change, heat stress will become a bigger issue for plants, especially when it creates new heat-released disease.”
If the sunscreen proves effective and becomes used on a wider scale, it may also have a positive effect on the conservation of water and energy as well.
