the runt

There is a runt in the collard row of my garden. When these plants were purchased they were housed in a 9-cup tray, in which they had sprouted and grown until that time. On further inspection, I took note that there were actually 10 plants in the tray – two were growing in one of the cups. The second one in that cup was a bit smaller.

These extra plants had come to me on other occasions and they usually grow and do well. This was the case with this collard plant also; it caught up with the other ones and is now the same size. But the third plant in the row – one of the bigger plants when planted – is now a runt; something has stunted its growth.

Its place of residence is between two healthy plants with the growth factors – soil, moisture and fertilizer – all the same. It looks healthy but it only measures about 6 inches across whereas all the others are about 2 feet. I’m at somewhat of a loss to understand why it is growing so slowly.

Another growth stunting factor would be the presence of bugs chewing away on the leaves and/or stalk. But visual inspection did not reveal any of these evil little critters. So what caused this plant to be the runt of the litter – or whatever one calls a group of plants?

My mind went deeper into the matter and sought for some tiny, intrinsic yet elusive thing that would have caused some trauma to this plant when it was younger. Could it have been some causal remark I made while planting this green entity that hurt its feelings? It seems to me that I planted them all the same – maybe my attitude wasn’t quite right for just that one moment.

One time when I went out to check on it, I gave it a drink of water and not the others, just to show that I really cared. I hope this is not one of those plants that must be talked to in order to do well. I guess I could go out occasionally and read it a poem or something.

I’ve heard it said that smoking will stunt growth in humans but I haven’t seen this plant smoking. But then I’m not out there every minute, it could have happened at night. Maybe the little collard is worried or stressed out about something. Do they have plant shrinks?

This runt is sounding much too human – I believe a couple of nights of frost will straighten it out – I hear that a good frost will sweeten up collards very well. Some of us humans need some sweetening up on occasion – I wonder if staying out all night in a heavy frost would work on us.

Sometimes we Christians may feel like a runt when faced with satan and his cohorts, but the Word is still true that tells us: “greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” ec