Indeed, but I do like the grandparent’s choice of “tugging” better as well. The original story had the foolish farmer pulling the sprouts upward by an inch and

Indeed, but I do like the grandparent’s choice of “tugging” better as well. The original story had the foolish farmer pulling the sprouts upward by an inch and said that he had made them grow taller by that much. Maybe “tugging up the crops to speed its growth”?