Traditionally (19th century British literature) any such technique was called "forcing" if it simulated an environment more favorable to growth. Techniques include light cycle variation (covering the plant with an opaque cover at specific time was the standard approach), thermal environment manipulation (using horse dung to generate heat from below, or glass cover to trap heat above), CO2 manipulation by breathing in the space the plants are, or using bacteria that produce CO2, varying the timing, location and temperature of water, etc etc etc

Here's a photo of people harvesting forced rhubarb. Someone said this was in Cheltenham (Gloucestershire, which is south west England) in 1937.

http://imgur.com/B8iqwAh

I don't know anything about this photo. There's a lot of information that's been lost - I don't think anyone knows who the people are, or where this was taken, or when it was taken. Maybe the information is in some archive somewhere and it just hasn't been digitised yet. It does make me wonder what the future people will call this time - the time where we have photographs and film and audio, but it hasn't been digitised and is hard to search.

So we don't know why this women is wearing nice shoes while picking rhubarb - did she just not care? is this a special occasion photo op?

Sure - a lot of things aren't digitalized, but that doesn't mean it's lost - yet. A lot of it still exist in physical and analogue form - in archives, collections and private as well as public libraries across the globe.

There are however some quantity of people who equal "not being digitalized" as "being lost" (I'm not saying you're one of them). That would however not be true, at least not yet.

That said, there are people who have an over-confidence in technology or digitalization, which think we should forgo our analogue copies of any or everything. Some people use the argument that "Everything of value, has been digitalized". (Not everyone is a curator... tho)