Casual observation shows that most plants do not flower at random. In locations with a seasonal or otherwise variable climate, synchronized flowering is a spectacular event. To the farmer who faces risks such as the early flowering of crops during killing frosts, however, synchronized flowering can be a disaster.
Not surprisingly, there has been a substantial amount of basic research into how plants control flowering, and a substantial amount of applied research into methods and compounds for delaying or inhibiting flowering in plants. In spite of this research, there has not been discovered a method of inhibiting flowering in plants which takes advantage of, and manipulates, the natural flowering regulatory system of plants. Such a method would provide mankind with extremely precise and nontoxic control over the plants and crops on which he depends.