Lecture by Alan Chadwick in Saratoga, May 9, 1972

Lecture 2, Part 2.10

An Introduction to Alan Chadwick's Lectures and a Glossary of Terms

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Contents of this Segment:

Culling inferior plants; Wait until the third or forth pod for best quality seed; Remove the first and second pods; Pinch back the main shoot after the pods form; Relationship between plant and gardener; Propagation of education.

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Villa Montalvo Lecture Series

Saratoga, California, 1972, Lecture 2,

Propagation, Part 10

You must allocate a piece of area for this seed business. You must sow the seed of the best that you have got. When the plants come up, anything that is inferior must be culled as it grows; an inferior plant removed utterly. When it is beginning to come into fruition, you must do exactly what you did with the strawberry. You must say, “Not too many now.” You want it to be a positive matter.

Now the first pods that will produce, for instance on a sweet pea, or the first pods that will produce on a sugar pea, are never the best. They can’t be. What is happening? You have risen from the sleeping area towards the equinox of the plant. I am referring to this period of the cycle of the plant. That the vitality of the excitement of growth of opening up and excitement in the pea plant is rushing up, and as a shoot, which is all embryonic in its entire growth coming up. For conceive that in every pea that you sow is the whole vision of the future of a plant with blossoms, with pods, with endless pods, with seeds within those pods, which is a totality of the whole of creation. This is in the pea that you sow. And although you can’t see it or touch it, it’s there. And we can’t forget it.

Therefore you must realize that this tremendous propulsion that is looking forward to this huge period of the emolument of bloom, is growing into… All the juices of the plant are going towards it. So when this first little blossom takes place, and a seed pod occurs, it’s inferior. The whole life force is rushing with excitement past January towards February, and past February towards March. The primavera… It’s all such excitement going on. "I know what’s inside. It’s going to do this. And so everything is going into that." And therefore number one and number two must be removed promptly with scissors. You don’t want.. The ones you want are the ones around the equinox, that ones that are with this enormous blossoming before this huge sweep of blooming, when it is not at its best. And so, it’s number three, four and five of a sugar pea, or a sweet pea, or a great many climbing plants, that you will take your seed. And when that seed has set, you should stop that shoot, so as to make everything in that vitality go into those particular seeds. And anything again that is inferior, in a blossom, or an appearance, or a scent, or a texture, should be culled, so as not to inter-pollinate.

By this, when you take that seed, next year you will see a voluptuousness that you did not have this year. You have… Already you can see it in the growth. This thing has got real robustousness. It loves the area. It’s used to it. It knows you. And it’s used to all the approximations of your emanation and your garden. And it is indeed happy and is growing supremely. And now when you do this again, you are again working at this culture, and the plant, of course, becomes aware of it and operates with it. How is it that we have chickens today that will lay you three hundred eggs a year? How is it that cows give us all the milk and the butter that they do? They’ve become acquainted with our needs and our wishes. They didn’t do it originally by pumping the tail. And, of course, plants are likewise acutely sensitive to this and are aware of this thing that I’m referring to of emanation: The giving off of a sense that comes from your imagination and your feeling of sensitivity toward creation, towards this fabulous thing: propagation.

It is such an enormity to realize what propagation is. When we were at Santa Cruz having lectures, I couldn’t help speaking for a moment on this enormous matter of propagation of education. That education itself is just as a plant in a garden. That it has its period of growth. That it actually blooms and seeds and has a blossoming and a fruiting and a seeding, and is a very, very fascinating matter. And that the propagation of education is a huge, huge vision into the future.

And so that from this seed matter, of taking your own seed, and adopting this method of culture in it, you can definitely improve your stocks. And in the days when people had liberty to live, they didn’t have to spend half their day in a motor car, tearing down an express way to get nowhere, they had time to study trees and beautiful fruits and flavors, and to actually taste them. And to know the difference between butters from different pastures. And at that time, they had gardeners. And the gardeners of those areas had their individual emanation in the total emanation…

[Here the recording of this lecture breaks off.]

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