瓜不一定按先後次序長大 Fruits Don’t Always Grow in the Order They Appeared

　　反而後來出現的一個突然開始迅速生長，而且越長越快，最後成為第一個收成的大瓜。更奇怪的是，這個大瓜快速膨大期間，其他小瓜幾乎全部停住了。到大瓜差不多長定、開始轉黃，另一個原本停滯的小瓜才突然開始長大。好像植物在說：「先讓這一個長好，下一個等等。」

　　Then a later fruit suddenly took off. It grew faster and faster and eventually became the first one I harvested. What was even more interesting was that, while this fruit was swelling rapidly, almost all the others seemed to stop growing. Only when the fruit had more or less reached full size and begun to turn yellow did another previously stalled fruit start to expand. It was almost as if the plant were saying, “Let me finish this one first. The next one can wait.”

　　我估計，植株是在把有限的水份和養份優先供應給一個正在快速生長的果實，等它完成主要膨大階段，才輪到下一個。

　　當然，等待中的瓜並不是全部都能成功。其中一個後來開始皺縮，最終夭折了。

　　原來「成功授粉」並不等於「一定會長大」。看着植物自己決定把資源投放在哪一個果實上，反而成為這次種植最有趣的觀察之一。

　　My guess is that the plant was concentrating its limited water and nutrients on one fruit at a time, then shifting resources once that fruit had done most of its growing.

　　Not every fruit that waited its turn made it, of course. One later began to shrivel and eventually died.

　　I had assumed that once a fruit had set, it would simply keep growing. Apparently not. Watching the plant prioritise one fruit over another turned out to be one of the most fascinating parts of the whole experiment.