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Back in the mid-20th century, a space-age form of breeding captured the imagination of the public by harnessing the power of the atom to create a new generation of weird and wonderful never-seen-before plants, many of which we still grow today.
The “atomic gardening” movement exposed wide ranges of plants and seeds to radioactive substances for short periods, as a fast and efficient way to induce mutations. Using methods as diverse as strapping packets of seed to the insides of x-ray machines at local hospitals, and even siting them within the fallout zone of nuclear weapons testing sites, scientists were able to generate thousands of new genetic combinations.
Although the experiments are mostly forgotten today, many crops and ornamental plant varieties still in common use descend from these tests that hoped to advance humanity by using “atoms for peace”. These include the bright red ‘Star Ruby’ grapefruit that comes with enhanced levels of the nutrient lycopene, ‘Todd’s Mitcham’ peppermint, which accounts for most of the world’s production of menthol and mint oil, and probably almost every “supersweet” sweetcorn variety you have ever eaten.
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Related on the SLP
Compared to the surgical precision of modern gene editing, these efforts were like using a sledgehammer, creating potentially hundreds of unpredictable mutations with unknown effects. Yet they were enthusiastically adopted by the gardening public. . . . In the US the seeds were widely grown by school science clubs and in the UK there was even an Atomic Gardening Society founded in 1958, that encouraged the amateur to get involved.
Want to try your hand at growing “atomically energised” plant varieties? Here are a few examples: Tulip ‘Faraday’ (1949); Cherry ‘Compact Lambert’ (1964); Dahlia ‘Ornamental Rays’ (1966). . .
Read full, original post: Gardens: expose yourself to atomic gardening
