ALOHA FRIDAY! As per my usual, I have some deepness for you today about a well known scientist named Sir Jagadis Bose. His ground breaking contribution to the world of radio waves and wireless technology is what most people know him for, but his work in botany and horticulture is relatively unknown however intensely profound. Bose came up with a device called the Crescograph which allows one to see the effects of stimuli to plants in as fast as 15 minutes. At first I was skeptical as Bose was known to be a science fiction writer as well as a scientist. After doing some extended research, I found some incredible photos scanned in by someone who found his books in an old government library. Bose’s science is accurate and inspirational! What amazes me the most is that this science is from the 1800s when research and resources were 100 time less then what they are now, yet Bose managed to create, learn and innovate unlike anyone since. Building one of these devices seems like an impossible task, but I must admit, I’m intrigued to try and understand it’s components and usefulness. Imagine being able to determine right after giving your plants a new product, exactly how effective or not effective it is. As far as I know, we still don’t have a device like this. I will make sure and let you know as soon as one appears

Here is what I found -

In the 1970s I read the book “Secret Life of Plants. An interesting reference was made to the research of Jagadis Bose, founder of the Bose Research Institute in Calcutta, India. I searched the antique and rare bookstore in northern New England and several University libraries for books on this with no luck.

Sir Jagadis Bose had developed a method of measuring the growth rate of plants in very short time spans. Rather than having to wait for daey, weeks, or even months to see if a change one had made in the environment or nutruition of a plant you could see the results in 15 minutes! This could be especially helpful in hydroponic growing as you could fine tune the nutrients and trace elements to get maximum growth rate.

Sir Jagadis Bose was far ahead of his time in knowledge and research. He and his institute deserve the proper recognition from the rest of the world that has been a long time coming.

Little did I know that the complete set of books of the Bose Research Institute were less than a half a mile away! I was stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base at the time. There’s a great library there, the Hanscom AFB Geophysical Research Library. If you are a government employee, US military member or work for a government contractor you can get in.

One day I dropped by to check it out, and there on the second floor on a shelf near the door at the top of the front stairs found the complete set of his books. I think I was the first person to even open them as they had that new book feel.

I photo-copied the most important parts on the measurement of the growth rate of plants and filed it away.
The info sat in my filing cabinet for over 20 years until now.

All I can say is, why aren’t more of us looking to create exciting new ways to understand our plants? This guy used the crudest of resources and managed to achieve so much. Science and Knowledge will take us closer to perfecting our crops then anything else guys! Have a great weekend, and rig up an innovation for me. 1-866-PGS-GROW