Seed to Seed : Know your Channa dal/Bengal gram through leaves and flowers.
This episode of Seed to Seed is about – Channa dal’s plants, leaves and flowers.
Bengal gram fulfils all the requirements of a seed. It has a rough dark brown skin which is the coat. It has 2 yellow cotyledons (channa dal) and an embryo that is the tiny plant which cannot be seen with naked eyes.
We sowed the seeds just before the monsoon(2020). It is summer in India. We placed the pots close to the wall of our house to give shelter from the heavy rain.
Experiment 1
Prepared a pot and soaked few Bengal gram seeds in water for about 4 hours and then sowed them about 2 cm below the soil top.
For few days there were no sign of the grams. We kept watering the pot to keep the soil moist.
On the 6th day tiny whitish green sprouts emerged on the surface of the pot.
During those 5 days when nothing was visible on the surface of the soil, there were many changes taking place in the seeds inside the ground. To find that out, we did another experiment side by side. And we call that Experiment 2.
Experiment 2.
Germination of the gram seeds inside a glass:
We filled up a glass with soil up to 2 cm below the brim of the glass and watered it lightly.
We placed 3 soaked gram seeds on the soil inside the glass, touching the side of the glass, and then covered them with soil to the top of the glass.
On 3rd day, the germination of the seed could be seen through the glass. The root came out and moved downward.
On 4th day, the shoot came out – slightly greenish white in colour and moving upward.
On 5th day the shoot grew taller and headed towards the top of the soil in search of sun light. The gram seed remained where it was placed at the beginning.
On 6th day, the shoot reached the top of the soil and a tiny stem with leaves appeared on top of the soil.
The Bengal gram seeds remained inside the soil nurturing the new plant. When the seeds remain inside the soil during germination, it is called hypogeal germination.
Now back to the Experiment 1:
On the 6th day green shoots were visible on the surface of the soil in the pot.
On the 7th day tiny leaves unfolded into 3 and 5 small leaflets instead of single leaves.
The lower picture is the enlarged view of the above pot. Here you can clearly see the leaf has 5 leaflets.
When a leafstalk has more than leaf then the plant is said to have compound leaves.
So channa dal plants have compound leaves.
Once the green leaves are out, the plants no longer depend on their cotyledons. The roots collect water from the soil and the leaves with the help of sunlight prepare the food for the plants. This process is known as photosynthesis. Once photosynthesis starts the plants grow very fast.
On 10th day the count of leaflets were 7.
By 12th day – some leafstalks had 9 leaflets.
The plants grew taller and increased the count of leaflets to 11, 13 and 15.
By the time the plants were 15 days old, most of leafstalks had 11 to 15 leaflets each.
The plants had luxuriant growth. The leaflets count increased from 7 to 15. The stems were delicate and could not stand upright. We made some bamboo supports for the plants.
The plants completed 30 days. They grew taller but lost the green abundant look.
When they were about 45 days, buds and flowers were seen.
The flowers had a rich lilac colour.
Waited for the pods to come out. But there were no pods. Soon the flowers began to wither.
A dried flower.
The plants dried up one by one.
After 60 days only 2 plants were left in the pot. The plants were about 55 cm tall.
Channa dal is a winter crop. The experiment was done before monsoon. Happy to show you the plant, leaves and the flowers. Will try again in October- November, then we hope to see the pods.
Will keep you posted……
Dal On The Table 