Twist tie me up

October 2, 2014 4:48 PM

The green twist ties in garden stores and the green tape for supporting vines and plants,....are they green as a light spectrum issue or just to blend in with the leaves?
posted by Freedomboy to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

So far as I know, they're green to match the leaves. Some people use twine and you can get it in natural twine color or dyed green.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:02 PM on October 2, 2014

What do you mean by "as a light spectrum issue"? Do you mean like... does it help in some way with photosynthesis that they're green, vs. is it just aesthetic? If that is the question you're asking... it's just aesthetic. The color has no functional purpose. Though the tape is usually transparent also, which is functional.
posted by brainmouse at 5:04 PM on October 2, 2014

Nobody plants twist ties in their garden. I will push all of my chips to the center of the table and go all in on the guess that it's for camouflage.
posted by oceanjesse at 5:07 PM on October 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks sort of settled a bet here, all smiles.
posted by Freedomboy at 6:15 PM on October 2, 2014

Plants are green because they're absorbing red and blue light for photosynthesis and reflecting green light. If you thought twist tie color could meaningfully affect plant growth, you'd want ones that reflected red and/or blue so the twist tie wasn't taking some puny amount of usable light away from the plant.
posted by momus_window at 6:16 PM on October 2, 2014 [4 favorites]