We have grown quite a lot of plants (not all successfully!) but I thought it would be nice to grow some where the roots are visible, and which grow quickly enough to keep a small person's interest. Oh, and that don't involve having compost indoors given someone's love of messy digging... We therefore tried two different things in yoghurt pots.
The first was cress. This was very easy and worked nicely - we put a piece of kitchen roll folded in the bottom of a small clear yoghurt pot. The boy put a little water on it and a generous toddler sprinkle of cress seeds. We wrapped the pot in foil and left it on the windowsill. We checked on them each day. On day 1, there were small sprouts from the seeds. We uncovered them on day 3 and let them green up. By day 5 the cress was ready to eat! He was excited to try the cress he'd grown with his dinner, but a little unsure about the flavour. His baby brother was keen to share, and although he wrinkled his nose in disgust, he went back for more!
The second was a broad bean. To be more accurate, four broad beans, but only one actually sprouted! We put them in a big yoghurt pot, two to a pot. We held them against the side of the pot a little up from the bottom using a cylinder of kitchen roll. We kept the kitchen roll wet with the addition of around 1cm of water to the bottom each day. By day 3 there was a root, on day 4 a green shoot appeared. The photo below is on day 5. It's still growing, and we will soon be putting it in a pot with soil. He was quite taken by the big root that "lets the bean plant drink", so I will keep it out of a pot for a bit longer so he can watch it grow - it is about 2cm longer today (day 6) than yesterday and first leaves are unfolding.
Both the cress and bean worked well and kept his interest, although it's a shame that we only got one of the four beans to germinate (and that he wasn't too keen on eating the cress he'd grown!).
The first was cress. This was very easy and worked nicely - we put a piece of kitchen roll folded in the bottom of a small clear yoghurt pot. The boy put a little water on it and a generous toddler sprinkle of cress seeds. We wrapped the pot in foil and left it on the windowsill. We checked on them each day. On day 1, there were small sprouts from the seeds. We uncovered them on day 3 and let them green up. By day 5 the cress was ready to eat! He was excited to try the cress he'd grown with his dinner, but a little unsure about the flavour. His baby brother was keen to share, and although he wrinkled his nose in disgust, he went back for more!
The second was a broad bean. To be more accurate, four broad beans, but only one actually sprouted! We put them in a big yoghurt pot, two to a pot. We held them against the side of the pot a little up from the bottom using a cylinder of kitchen roll. We kept the kitchen roll wet with the addition of around 1cm of water to the bottom each day. By day 3 there was a root, on day 4 a green shoot appeared. The photo below is on day 5. It's still growing, and we will soon be putting it in a pot with soil. He was quite taken by the big root that "lets the bean plant drink", so I will keep it out of a pot for a bit longer so he can watch it grow - it is about 2cm longer today (day 6) than yesterday and first leaves are unfolding.
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| Broad bean and cress |
Both the cress and bean worked well and kept his interest, although it's a shame that we only got one of the four beans to germinate (and that he wasn't too keen on eating the cress he'd grown!).
If you want to see what happened to the broad bean plant, you can see it at five weeks old here: https://ossicones-and-oxygen.blogspot.com/2019/09/update-on-broad-bean.html
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