HORTICULTURIST

If L. Ron Hubbard had accomplished nothing else through the course of his extraordinary life, he would still be remembered for his 1959/1960 horticultural experimentation in Sussex, England. He initially defined his aims as twofold: First, he wished to examine methods of increasing plant production as a means of reforming world food supplies; while simultaneously he proposed that with the examination of plant life cycles, one might glean pertinent facts regarding the life cycles of all living things. To these aims, he further spoke of radiating seedlings to effect controlled mutations, and eradicating mildew with infrared light.

Results, as evident from the literal fruit of his labor in two greenhouses, were nothing if not dramatic. “His tomatoes keep on growing to sixteen feet!” exclaimed newspapers of the day, and offered photographs of tomato hybrids producing five times the normal yield, with fifteen trusses and forty-five tomatoes to each. Meanwhile, gardening periodicals marveled at discoveries relating to the restorative properties of infrared baths (spectacularly demonstrated with the rejuvenation of an all but dead orchid). Also of keen interest were Mr. Hubbard’s sowing techniques for increased germination, and an improved humus composition, all factors contributing to his growing of the earliest sweet corn crop ever seen in England.

From the broader perspective, however, this experimentation concerned much more than plants. Rather, as Mr. Hubbard explained, his work involved a study of life force in general and “cellular life behavior and reaction to see if it was a different type of life — it isn’t.” Ensuing from that research came his delineation of key natural laws relating to change as the primary factor in the bettering or worsening of all living things.

But however one views L. Ron Hubbard’s horticultural work from these years, the ramifications were immense. Indeed, if popular conceptions of the plant as a living, feeling organism are now fairly broad, Mr. Hubbard was actually the first to demonstrate that fact, and his subsequent experimentation proved nothing short of revolutionary.