19 September 2022
A plant-based foam mixed with hot water has worked as well as glyphosate weedkiller at removing weeds from olive groves and has also been used successfully in urban areas
18 August 2022
Researchers have succeeded in making photosynthesis more efficient in soybean plants, in a major breakthrough that will mean less forest has to be cut down to make way for farms
22 December 2021
For the first time, grafting has been made to work in monocots, a type of plant including oats, wheats and bananas – and it might improve disease tolerance among these important crops
7 December 2021
Leaves vibrate at a different frequency depending on whether soy plants are under water stress
5 December 2019
For the first time plants have been recorded making sounds when stressed. The sounds differed when they were injured or thirsty, a finding that could help farmers
21 August 2019
In greenhouses across China, scientists are exposing lettuces and cucumbers to powerful electric fields in an attempt to make them grow faster. Can electroculture work?
17 May 2018
Cannabis – the source of the drug marijuana – virtually disappeared from Europe just as farmers arrived, so they didn’t get the chance to grow it for another 4500 years
27 December 2017
Ever since we domesticated the cocoa tree over 3000 years ago, we have been breeding them to make tastier chocolate – but in the process we have made them vulnerable
10 July 2017
In very dense fields, sunflowers self-organise into an alternating-tilt pattern that maximises exposure to sunlight
17 May 2017
Even as we discover promising new wild relatives of key crops and medicinal plants, some of them are already endangered by pests and climate change
