SHELF LIFE

This is a very important subject and a lot of research goes on all the time trying to improve it, especially where you have long distances to market or multiple handlers of your product before the end user.
I was just reading a very interesting article from a very well known publication on hydroponics I will past it below and then add my thoughts to it:

The article was discussing the problems of wilting at harvest.

Wilting

Some plants are prone to wilting in high heat but the wilting they were talking about was at harvest. The owners had grown a large crop of Basil and blamed Aquaponics as the culprit. The plants after all had it too easy. The Basil plants were full of water with their roots submersed in the stuff all the time. It was a DWC floating raft system with heavily oxygenated water so the plants were very happy indeed – until harvest day. Then the plants flopped over and wilted when picked. They had lost a whole crop to wilting.

Harvest

A little closer investigation revealed that the owners had decided to let their Basil grow nice and big and then when they decided to harvest the plants out,  they also removed the roots and cut up the stems into marketable sizes and wrapped the whole thing in plastic and threw it into the truck to take to market the next day. They didn’t have a cold room so shelf storage of the product became a big problem. They had also tried adding a slurp of water into the parcels to give the plants a “drink” but that method didn’t work either!  All they had was a pile of wilted plants that no one would buy.

                     They had failed to understand the way a plant works.

                "now I think this is a critical statement they had made here"

 To me this is a very good example of the difference between the conventional hydroponic growing systems and the Autopot plant driven System. plant roots in the Autopot System are not submerged in water they just receive the amount they need to grow strong and healthy by capillary action very similar as if they had grown in a conventional garden except they had not endured the  fluctuation in food and water supply plus soil deficiencies. With the Autopot System I use a lot of pure organic soil as my medium which is then supported by a well balanced nutrient, this medium acts as a buffer to my plants which reduces the need to be constantly monitoring, the plants virtually look after them self and they grow with the strength to  withstand travel and storage.

This simply applies to all things grown in the Autopot System.

Box wood Basil

While we are on the subject of Growing Basil let me introduce you to a wonderful variety called BOX WOOD BASIL

Grows into a lovely bush, has great basil smell and so far has not shown signs of bolting. You only have to brush past it and you will get a whiff of aroma.