Spring Transformations Experiments - A Red Bean Seed To A Green Plant

Have you ever wonder - I always do. Let me tell you about my recent spring experiment (yes I am waiting patiently by creating my own small gardens in the house). In the jar I placed some cotton and water, placed two red bean seeds (my dry food supplies) and exposed all to sun light. Then I observed - germination (same thing I observed when I soaked my peas or beans for too long). Then I observed bean sprouting, unfortunately only one of them. The roots formed and grew into the cotton for the stem to grow freely with support. On the other side of the shell, the stem with leafs unfolded. All this from a red bean, the water and the sun. A beautiful transformation.

During the seed germination, the growing plant absorb nutrients from the seed, then once the roots are long enough they draw additional nutrients from the ground (but not in my case). Once the roots are fully formed, they are also able to draw water. But where do the extra cells come from? Not just from the water?

Plants with a help of sun energy absorb the carbon dioxide gas and release by-product well know oxygen. The carbon molecules form plants cells. Sun in addition helps to form other nutrients for the plant. All this with a help of sun energy, a process also called photosynthesis. So this is my simple explanation of the simple transformation from a red bean to a green plant you see on the photo. There is more to it, but if I go into all the details this post will be a botany lesson. On the side note I attempted to do the same with onion and quinoa - not very successful experiments. Barley, chickpeas, green peas are next (smile) - or what ever I will find in my pantry.

Let see how far will my plant grow. If I am successful and it starts flowering I may have some beans. I am glad that I do not need any honey bees or insects to pollinate the bean plant. Beans have self-pollinating flowers. Lucky me, because I do not want to be attacked again by an army of flies - something that happen to me few years ago.

However, as I see this red bean growing in front of my eyes. I yet wonder about many things.

I wonder. How does the red bean knows to produce a another red bean, and how it knows to have roots, then stem, then leaves, and then flowers? How does it know to die after few months of working hard, and grow back again from the produced seed? And how about the seed that been packaged and stored in the sealed plastic bag for months, yet after being exposed to water it is able to produce a plant. It is all part of the genetic code, just like a computer code. I guess programming was very well known before we even existed - I guess? Just in a different form. Who in the world orchestrated all this? How? Why?

Tough questions but then by the end of the day, we just have to say what Frank Lloyd Wright said: 'Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you'. And I will add: 'Photograph nature'.