Sprouting seeds

Like most people this time of year, we have been planting out seeds to grow some vegetables in our garden. 

We’ve talked before about “roots and shoots” etc and have watched time lapse videos but I wanted to be able to show him in a more hands on way.

We planted runner beans in cotton wool and clear plastic cups. 

Every day Michael watered them and observed their change. It worked really well. He could clearly see the beans, roots, shoots and leaves and was able to watch the order in which they appeared. He sat and drew them; this is the diagram he drew...

One bonus that we hadn’t expected was that one of the bean’s shoots couldn’t find its way up. We talked about how plants need sunshine and made a channel in the cotton wool to help it up. The shoot had taken too long however so it scrapped that shoot and sent up a new one. This was a brilliant example of nature solving problems for Michael to see!

We also sprouted mung beans and have enjoyed eating them in our wraps and meals.