Pulling down to correct level

diana chapman rarebulbs@earthlink.net
Tue, 12 Jul 2005 19:21:43 PDT
Maybe the focus is too much on the bulb.  Soil, after all, is not a static
uniform medium, but a dynamic entity full of microorganism and insects that
is actually moving around.  When you flood a pot with a bulb in it the soil
particles sort of float, until the excess moisture flows through the medium
and starts flowing out of the holes of the pot, when the soil medium settles
down again.  So maybe the soil in a pot is moving up, as well as the bulb
moving down.  Calochortus, as Paige pointed out always end up at the bottom
of the pot no matter what.  They are true bulbs and the bulb you see is the
bulb you saw last year - sort of.  Of course it has added mass, and, yes, I
agree, it can grow downwards, but they also have thick roots that look like
retractile roots when they are in full growth before flowering.  It's too
simplistic to think of a bulb as a globular object on a string that is being
pulled through a dense uniform medium.  The medium must play a role - after
all we all know that rocks move up through soil and there isn't anything
pulling or pushing them!

Diana
Telos


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