Winning a plant campaign

摘要

I'm going into battle - with tomatoes. I trudge daily through a field of 3,000 plants of varying genetic constitution with which I am trying to conquer and, ultimately, expose how inflorescences - the branching structures where flowers are produced - develop. My 'to do' lists comprise a plan of attack. My weapons are a pencil, tags, a pair of tweezers and the pollen that I move from plant to plant. And the plants and the field are my opponents, mounting perilous counter-attacks.