Can acupuncture be used on plants?
After experimenting for 15 years, Hsiao Gui-wen (
When applied to fruit-bearing plants such as peach and apple trees, acupuncture not only advanced the harvest time by a month and a half, but also decreased damage by blight.
The technique has been patented, and many interested businesses now are in negotiation for the rights to use the technology.
Hsiao originally ran a chiropractic clinic in Yonghe. After he witnessed ginger lilies change color upon absorbing dyes, he toyed with the idea that plants may have acupuncture points like humans.
To explore the concept, Hsiao commenced worked in the early 1990s with fruit growers at Wuling Farm, Shigang (
After 8 years of research, he had built up a comprehensive map of acupuncture points on plants. He spent another 7 years after that experimenting with the effects of different needle combinations and incisions.
The peach tree that he practiced on produced a great harvest, and eventually accompanied President Chen Shui-bian (
The needles used to acupuncture plants are made of steel spokes from bicycles. The needles are about 3 to 4 times larger than those used for humans.
A fruit tree takes about 20 to 30 needles, and acupuncture can be applied to either the trunk or the branches. The exact acupuncture points are the target of the patent.
After acupuncture, Hsiao also applies his organic crop spray naturally extracted from animals or plants. Hsiao pointed out that many growers use pesticides or hormone enhancer that can damage both the environment and human health.
If his success had come 10 years earlier, Hsiao said, he could have run his own farm. However, since he is already 66 years old, he intends transferring the technique instead.
Because of his love for Taiwan, Hsiao insisted that this technique should stay in Taiwan, and not be transferred to China.
He pointed out that the earlier yields his technique produces can result in prices three to four times higher than the seasonal rate.
On the other hand, scholars from the Department of Horticulture at the National University are more conservative about the effects of acupuncture on enhancing harvest and preventing blight.
Assistant professor Yeh Te-ming (葉德銘) stated that it's common to enhance the growth of plants by changing certain environmental factors, such as the temperature, humidity or light. However, he had never heard of anyone using the acupuncture technique.
Chang Tsu-liang (張祖亮), another assistant professor said that although he had heard about research in the area of plant acupuncture at universities in Germany and in China, actual research results or scientific data are as yet unavailable.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS