Lecture by Alan Chadwick in New Market, Virginia, 1979
Lecture 7: Propagation, Part 4
An Introduction to Alan Chadwick's Lectures and a Glossary of Terms
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Contents of this Segment:
Affect of heat and cold on seed germination. Sensitivity of Scarlet Runner Bean to cold. Nerve system and the ripening process within the bean plant. Light and darkness and their effect on germination. Compost. Pteris and Urtica as an antidote to fungus problems. Seaweed. (12:08)
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New Market, Virginia, 1979, Lecture 7
Propagation, Part 4
...that grows so much the other side of the mountains, stupidly called mountain lilac. It has no reference to Lilac at all. It’s Ceanothus. That that is practically only propagatable if the seed is burned. And in many cases the gardener will fire the seed. He will very quickly singe it. And there are many seeds that must be frozen for so many days and nights, and then be quickly switched over to a warmer temperature, going up to 60, 65 and held, and vise versa, must have warmth first, started, and then frozen, and then got on with it. And that it is possible to have a temperature of making raspberry jam for instance, 450 degrees, and then sowing and germination take place. And of course miles below zero, likewise.
Do you understand with the scarlet runner bean, which is the only perennial vicia of the garden, that that is absolutely prone to a half degree of frost. Every leaf, every blossom, every bit of the plant will be black if there’s a half degree of freezing. And yet, what astonishment this is in this planetary performance which does this. But within a thing that we call a pod, p-o-d, pod, runs a membrane, of which many membranes… They’re like electric wires that you see down in the pavement when the men have got the manhole up, and you see all these things, and this “brrrr” going on, and you look down and you see all of these wires inside tubes, inside endless tubes, altogether in great packets. That is like the stem of the scarlet runner bean going up a pole.
And you realize they always go the same way as the planets. If you undo it and sent it the way against the planets they would undo overnight, and go up again the right way. And that within the stalk, again, it is incomprehensible because it doesn’t fit, it can’t really do it. But within that stalk are electric membranes. And you realize that one stalk holds sometimes fifteen beans, and that you have as many as twelve or twenty of those on one stalk of bean going round, and all these stalks coming off with all these fifteen beans hanging on, you can see the number you’ve got. You can think of it as wires going up. We say coming out of the soil, feeding: You feed the soil to feed them. Hallucinations.
Now understand that along the stalk that goes to the beans, they all hang on a little stalk of their own. So each other group of wires now goes down to that stalk of beans and every bean, every pod, has a certain number of beans. And that on one side only does the membrane run which is the main fuse wire which goes to the bean. The other one is a relieving hinge on the other side of the pod, and is not of course a membrane that feeds at all. Now when that’s made, first, it’s a beautiful succulent, juicy skin, which is going “aha, aha, aha, aha,” and is delicious to eat. So we don’t worry a bit about the bean, and say, “To hell with it.” It’s actually wonderful. Chop it up and serve it in the salad, or slightly cook it, and it’s superb!
But after a little while, the electricity has been running into those seven beans out of that membrane, and immediately those beans begin to form. The whole of that “pod,” as we call it, is also being fed by membranes of a different nature. And they turn from the most exquisite, juicy nothings, almost pondweed, into beautiful materials of great softness, and from there into silks lined with satins and beautiful skins. And gradually on the outside it begins to turn into canvas, and even little wooden ribs. And those wooden ribs turn into steel ribs, and the whole of that pod turns into a metallic concoction that is lined and lined, inside and out with shellacs, with veneers, with the whole of Basilisk which we talked about, chained with every metal in the world.
And what happens? In the end the bean is in there with the secret from the planet, sitting in the embryo between the two cotyledons with the juice around it, with the air pocket, with again skins and veneers around the bean, of the most incredible colors, sitting like rose-purple, with black markings like zebras, like animals, inside this pod. And now the whole thing has changed into opposites again, the two Archangels handing over. And the whole of that pod can hang through the most destitute winter of Moscow and not one ounce of the elements can get at the embryo of those beans. And you can sow them, or they will sow themselves, in the Spring. And the revolutionibus, and the moon will bring them to light at the right moment of the performance of the four Archangels.
Therefore the effects of breathings, the effects of the four elements, earth, fire, air and water. You almost utterly require air to produce seed, and for birth. They must have only the lightest coverings. More than the lightest coverings and you will seclude the revolutionibus and the performance of air.
The application also of the magics of light and dark. Now if you have stored seed, it is often advantageous to sow them first, for a few nights with what we would call “dark.” What many people would say, “Oh, well if you darken it, how does the moon fall?” To what depth does the moon perform? Does it go through your curtains, does it get under the bed, in that drawer, or is it only up there on your eye? And that therefore you start with darkness, and then suddenly expose it to light. You see here again you’re beginning the effects of the two Archangels, the opposites, Shock. Did we talk about shock and blooming, birth? There are many secrets, do you see? And that affects germination tremendously. And the endless matters of the plants coming from those different planets make that variation in their appreciation of dark or light. Today it’s not studied at all. But one time they knew a certain amount about this. One imagines that if the Atlanteans were real, they probably knew a good deal about this. What incredible mountains there are in the excitement, the incredible excitement of what you might call horticultural knowledge. It’s a journey. It’s endless!
You see both Alyssum and Mullein, for instance, are far better in light, but Silene would only pursue if you begin it in the dark. But if you keep either of those seeds after two month’s storage, they are equal in light or dark. Now, do you see that’s the whole effect, why certain seeds are better at germinated in the Spring and certain seeds are better of course germinating in the Fall. And there are many seeds that are equally satisfactory germinated in both. And of course there are many that blossom in both ends, and there are many that bloom only in the Spring, the opening out, and there are many that bloom only in the Fall, the closing down. And there are those that operate in both. There you have the whole control of this planetary interplay.
With the discussion that was so brief yesterday, concerning compost, you must realize that when one spoke of Urtica and when one spoke of Pteris—Urtica being the stinging nettle, the big one, and Pteris being the bracken, the fern—that there is great complication in the birth of seed which is so delicate. It is exposed to all the fungoid troubles of climatic, of the elements, which at those times is most dangerous. Now wherever you have fog air such as this is all the time, moist air, you will have illness of fungoid, total ill-health. The moment that you apply those plants such as Equisetum, Pteris, Urtica, and you create soil with those plants, you have created a disinfectant. They are in complete opposition, opposer to the fungoid and the atmosphere. And that when you have produced those exquisite, and produced them into a soil in which you can raise those seeds, you overcome your dilapidations of such things as botritus.
It takes time, as we said the day before yesterday, or yesterday, you don’t acquire this necessarily in one cycle. Therefore by the manufacture of seaweeds into your soil, of the secrets of the planets in the plants, there is nothing, there is no trick, there is no opposition, there is no fence to stop you from proceeding into resultant behavior.
The numerous technical procedures of propagation... Are you getting tired? You understand that you would have… These are basic studies. We’re looking at the whole matter concerned in the words cultivation, fertilization, propagation. We will have a whole study on how to propagate Dahlias. We will have a whole study on how to propagate the potato. Do you follow?. So, do not imagine that you’re supposed to, in this study, know how to propagate your whole garden.
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