My bioluminescent petunia
My bioluminescent petunia
Not an ad or anything but I got it from light.bio if you're curious. Super cool product, I've been waiting for a company to successfully bring a bioluminescent plant to the market for a decade and it finally happened!
Man... Fuck the US patent system. "Our Firefly Petunias are protected under patent, and as such, propagation and breeding are not permitted. These petunias are sold exclusively for personal use."
'Personal use' covers propagation and breeding by an individual, for non-commercial purposes. Nobody's saying -you- can't try to propigate or breed them, but you could be libel if you try to make money off the endeavor.
In this case I would say the patent system is working as intended, in that it gives some protection to LightBio's investment into creating the firefly. While I would LOVE to see an expanded variety available from other -commercial- growers (with MUCH larger operations and funding), I don't want it to be at the expense of LightBio's effort, or the commercial success they've earned for creating it in the first place.
Don't get me wrong, I still feel dirty for defending the US patent system. lol
I mean they invested into R&D to develop it, I think it's fair for them to have exclusive rights to sell it to recoup that investment and make a profit. This is a novelty item, not like an essential staple food or medication.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it is what it is, however petunias are very easy to propagate and you can do whatever you want with your plant as long as you aren't selling it.
I already have a second one growing from a cutting I took.
Ok, I'll take back some of my hate. I thought they had put some sort of monsanto-like 'if you try to reproduce it on your own they'll die' gene.
If it's not 'pay $40 if you want another plant' then that's more reasonable.
To be fair, they probably spent years of time, effort and money to design this product. Why should someone else be able to propagate it and profit from their blood sweat and tears?
Mine arrived all mangled, with most of the roots ripped off during shipping. It's recovering now, looking forward to hopefully getting to see the bioluminescence in a few weeks
Treat it well and the new growth will be bright!
Nice! I got mine recently too but haven't checked it for luminescence since I've been busy - I still need to repot it and hang it in a better spot that gets better sunlight so I'm not expecting it to be bright just yet.
Mine had almost no glow when I first got it, and I mangled the roots during repotting so it lost all of its leaves. This is its first new growth and it's nice and bright, I hope yours does well too!
Nice! Mine should be arriving soon and I can't wait! Does Light Bio send out shipping notices, or did you all just have it arrive as a nice surprise?
They should send you a shipping notice. I purchased mine on March 17th and got a shipping notification email on April 1st.
I got mine yesterday! It had a very, very slight glow last night. I'm hoping once we re-pot it and fertilize it the glow will get brighter.
I was in the same boat with a very faint or no glow at first. With fertilization and some bright lighting you'll start getting new growth that'll glow!
I wish they would do shipping to Europe.
I think it might be against the law in Europe. I'm not 100% sure but I think it's a lot harder to sell/ship a GMO plant there.
I think that's mostly food regulations, but I'm not an expert of the field. Might apply more broadly as well.
I live in the Netherlands and GMO's are banned here so I hope some get to Switzerland(not EU) where I could buy them and then import them like glofish.