About Sprouts

About Sprouts
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Here is a neat way to keep your plants growing. All you need is a large water or soda bottle, some dirt, and a paper towel.

Bottle Planter
Get a two-liter bottle, remove the label, and wash it out. Ask an adult to cut the top off the bottle just where the top of the label was. Fill the bottom of the bottle about half full of water. Roll up the paper towel and stick it through the mouth of the bottle. Pull the paper towel so a little more than half is sticking out the top of the bottle. Turn the top over (so it looks like a funnel) and set it in the bottom of the bottle. The paper towel should go down into the water. Fill the top with soil, water it, and plant your seeds. You won't need to water your plants because the water will travel up the paper towel and keep the soil moist. All you need to do is keep water in the bottom of the bottle.

Germinating Experiments
You can do a lot of different experiments examining the factors that influence germination. Use the same procedure as in About Sprouts. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- warm dark place vs. in the refrigerator to answer "Does temperature affect germination?"
- dark place vs. lighted place to answer "Is light required for germination?"
- under water vs. on a damp towel to answer "Is air required for germination?"

Growing Plants from the Grocery Store
Many of the fruits and vegetables that you see in the produce section of your grocery store can grow beautiful plants. Some of them are seeds and some are tubers. A tuber is a swollen part of the plant that stores food and water. Examples of tubers include potatoes, ginger roots, and taro roots.

Ginger - Ginger is one of the best grocery store things to grow! Just put a piece of ginger in a pot and cover it with a little soil. Don't let the soil dry out. You don't have to worry too much about the level of light because ginger does well with any level of light.

Avocado - Insert 4 toothpicks into the pit and set it over a jar of water with the flatter end pointing down. When the sprout is a few inches tall, plant it in soil and keep in a sunny windowsill.

Lemons and Limes - Remove the seeds and allow them to dry on a paper towel. Plant the seeds in moist soil. Cover with plastic wrap to keep the soil moist until the seeds germinate.

Taro Root - Taro leaves can get to be 2 feet across and 4 feet long! Since it's a tropical plant, plant the taro root (actually a tuber) in the spring in a warm place. In the fall, dig up the tuber, wash it off, and store it in a cool, dark place until spring.

Mango - Scrape off as much of the pulp as you can. Let the seed dry overnight and scrape off any remaining pulp. Plant the pit in a large pot and set in a sunny window.