See שביעית ו ג where the Mishna recognizes this phenomenon and distinguishes between these kind of light-green, "masturbatory" sprouts and strong, darkish-colored sprouts which result from having received external energies e.g. soil, rainwater.
בצלים שירדו עליהם גשמים וצמחו--אם היו העלין שלהן שחורים, אסורים; הוריקו, הרי אלו מותרין.
The way I see it, in the absence of ideally being able to receive its energies externally, the organism nonetheless seeks to tap into a release of it's energies from within. [Note also that the production of the light green shoots are, if I'm not mistaken, "weaker" and empirically contain less nutrients than those of the dark-green shoots, but it remains a "giving forth of energies" nonetheless...]
I would be very interested to know, scientifically, what in fact are the onions/garlics sacrificing internally that allows them to perform this "growth from within"... there must be some trade off...
And see Zohar Teruma 166b:
האי אור זרע ליה קב"ה בגנתא דעדנוי...ואי תימא בזמנא דגלותא כתיב אזלו מים מני ים....ואי תימא דאינון תולדין ואיבין הוו כמו דהוה בזמנא דגננא תמן, לאו הכי, אבל לא אתמנע זרוע דא לעלמין עיי"ש
[Addendum: not certain of the scientific validity but found discussion atleast that in humans increased masturbation causes increase of body's osteoclasts which break down bone... is there a plant equivalent to the human bone?... צע"ע]
[ועיין שער מאמרי רז"ל - מסכת בבא קמא - מאמר א' ]
[Addendum: not certain of the scientific validity but found discussion atleast that in humans increased masturbation causes increase of body's osteoclasts which break down bone... is there a plant equivalent to the human bone?... צע"ע]
[ועיין שער מאמרי רז"ל - מסכת בבא קמא - מאמר א' ]
4 comments:
Onions and garlic and such are bulb plants. The -essential- nutrients required for growth of the shoots are all contained in the bulb, just as all nutrients required for a seed to sprout are found in the endosperm.
http://www97.intel.com/NR/rdonlyres/A7C6FFF9-827D-4A13-AB33-A66F367315DC/2400/tulip_bulb_sketches.bmp
Eventually one must place the bulb or seed in soil, but these things can last on water then water and sunlight alone for a decent amount of time before soil is necessary.
PS- Your blog is very interesting and educational.
I guess what I'm really trying to ask then is:
What is that nutritional/enhancive component that being placed in soil provides and that without which the internal reproductive elements in the bulb alone would not suffice to allow for constant long-term plant growth on its own i.e. without soil?
For one thing, soil allows for root placement to absorb water more efficiently. It also allows for absorption of particular nutrients such as sulfer, nitrogen, carbon, potassium, phosphorous, etc. (ofc, carbon and nitrogen can be found in the air as well.) if it weren't for plants absorbing minerals from the soil and water (which has run through soil), those plants wouldn't supply us with minerals. :)
I see. I find that to be very informative. Thank you very much :-)
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