~ Seeds & Germination ~

We are indeed fortunate to have parent expertise to tap into so Mitchell's Dad and Megan's Mum are our guides for this part of our journey of learning. Mr Bakota took us for a wander around the school garden beds, naming plants and pointing out special features e.g. the colour, shape and position of leaves. He drew our attention to clusters of fruit and seeds, both on the plants and on the ground below. We spent considerable time observing and collecting seeds from the Golden Cane Palms.

Identifying seeds

As we moved around the school, the children picked up various seed pods and Mr Bakota demonstrated how to remove the outside coverings to get to the seeds within. Some seed pods are more difficult to get at than others e.g. the Malay Almonds. While we were wandering, we decided to collect some native Sturt Desert Pea seeds as well. Back inside the classroom, we examined what we had accumulated  and began the soaking process for the next lesson.

Mrs Gray introduced us to the Desert Rose growing in the school garden. She showed us its seed pod, which resembled a chili. But inside the pod were hundreds of feathery seeds, ready to fly wherever the wind took them. We removed the feathery ends and  have each planted a few of the seeds in potting mix. This tub of pots is in our vegie garden bed, which is having mixed success at the moment. Doing best are the eggplants and we guess it's no coincidence that they are coming up directly below the air conditioning run off, just as the plants that are thriving in the school garden beds, are those closest to the reticulation jets.  

The Desert Rose

The following week, Mr Bakota had us busy preparing the seeds for planting. To help us understand how varying conditions affect growth, we worked in groups. There's the 'wet' group, who planted the seeds that had been soaking for a week, the 'dry' group, who planted seeds that had not been soaked at all and the 'weird group', who planted the Sturt Desert Pea seeds (which had already begun to sprout) and seeds from a weed that has a little purple flower.

Some seeds were also placed directly into plastic bags containing peat moss. One contains Golden Cane Palm seeds and the other, Fan Palm seeds The bags were given plenty of air before being sealed and will act as terrariums. It will be interesting to see which group of seeds sprout first.

Click here to learn about our next big project: Making Terrariums!