Thursday, July 28, 2005

Mobile Tomato Plants

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you put a tomato plant on a motorized wheeled platform (with the requisite amount of dirt) and let the plant drive?

The hard part would be connecting the plant so it could correctly signal the platform to move in useful ways. I suppose some sort of chemical concentration sensors, or maybe even electrical conductivity would work.

For some inexplicable reason, I am greatly amused by the image of a herd of tomato plants driving around the yard on wheeled platforms.

The patient person would embark on a selective breeding program to allow the plants to drive the platforms into the sun, out of the wind, to get a drink of water, etc.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Some motion sensors could direct the platform as the plant follows the sunlight throughout the day... Other switches could be added to the leaves/branches as they wilt to signal water...

I don't know if this has ever been attempted!
JP