Regulating those raging (plant) hormones

The Biblical book of Amos describes the 8th-century BC prophet as a "gatherer" of sycomore figs. Some now think a more correct translation would be "piercer," because that's how ancient farmers got that type of fig to ripen. Centuries later, the Greek philosopher and botanist Theophrastus (371-286 BC) described this method: "It cannot ripen unless it is scraped, but they scrape it with iron claws; the fruit thus scraped ripens in four days."