Is faster growth good? I remember hearing that faster growth means fewer nutrients.
Also some herbicides work on the principle of making the plant grow too fast in order to kill it.
Also some herbicides work on the principle of making the plant grow too fast in order to kill it.
It does seem these electrical effects are well established, and seem to mostly have positive benefits: https://www.ehow.com/list_7531004_effects-electricity-plant-...
Cannabis as well, it's selected to smell strong, since people make their purchases based on sniff tests, at the expense of the quality of the high.
I read about the "gene for better flavor also leaves green around the stem" a long long time ago, long enough that those tomatoes would be in supermarkets if it were that simple.
Readily available so-called heirloom tomatoes explore all sorts of colors and gradients, and they sell well, and still they aren't that good. Gotta be more to this story.
If I've never read about trends in tomato genetics, presumably like most people, I'm just going to figure that the juiciest tastiest ones are the big red ones.
The other factor is that tomatoes that ripen on the vine tend to be tastier than tomatoes ripened off the vine. However fully ripe tomatoes tend to be squishier and don't travel as well. So they tend to be picked while firm and ripened using ethylene gas. These tend to be less tasty but easier to transport and store.
It's tradeoffs. A farmers market will typically have tastier tomatoes, when they are in season, than a supermarket, because they are picked when ripe, transported a short distance and sold within days. but if you're eating tomatoes out of season then expect them to be picked while unripe, refrigerated and then ripened off the vine so they can even make it to the supermarket shelves
Then, they get picked green for an even longer shelf life, and gassed with ethylene to turn red before sale. That definitely is not good for flavour.
But if you are in a temperate climate, people expect a consistent product through the year so that is what a supply chain that can deliver red oblong fruit steadily through the winter at a cheap price yields. Supermarkets probably also prefer dealing with suppliers that can provide a steady stream rather than periodic gluts at harvest time, so picking green and storing fruit probably allows them to be trickled onto market.
A vine ripened tomato is soft and either needs to get to market and sold much quicker or there will be considerably more wastage.
Heirlooms in stores are always a smaller section than the 2-3 varieties of uniform red ones (now there is the 'on the vine' gimmick where they sell clusters, which were still picked green), and generally 3-4x the price. They still probably get picked early and may be refrigerated in the supply chain so you aren't getting the same thing as you would growing it yourself.
I would disagree that the demand for good tasting tomatoes is they would outcompete the crap red ones. Here, in season local 'field tomatoes' (which are picked a little early but not green so show up in the store reddish, slightly less uniform in shape) and in terms of everything but colour and presentation are superior, but are the same or cheaper in price, it's not like the bullshit tomatoes disappear in season.
On top of that they're often picked before they are firm red (because they are more firm), with the knowledge that they will turn red over time after picking anyway.
On the other hand, I'll never forget the one time a Dutch colleague went on a trip to Italy, and when I asked him afterward how it was all the talked about was one time he went to the market and bought and ate a fresh tomato there, with just a pinch of added salt, as if it was a religious experience.
"You don't understand, it was like I ate a real tomato for the first time in my life! A real tomato, vanderZwan!"
These are the three most common in consumer broadleaf herbicide ingredients (usually combined) that actually work. They mimic a growth hormone:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxin
Between application time and death the plants really do just grow out of control in weird uncoordinated ways. You can see a treated dandelion here:
https://turf.purdue.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Slide16.J...
Another interesting broadleaf herbicide mechanism is overloading invasive plants with chelated iron. Broadleaf weeds absorb iron rapidly and without regulation until the point of toxicity, whereas grasses will only absorb what they need to turn a nice healthy dark shade of green.