Plant Mini-Course
Part One: Seed Germination
If you are doing a project that involves
plants, you will have to successfully pass this
mini-course. Follow the directions on the
slides that follow and bring in your plants as
proof that you were successful.
What you need:
- One empty, plastic pie
container with clear top
- Container or bowl that pie
container can sit on top of.
- Sharp scissors
- Cooking twine or string
- Seed starting mix
- Seeds
- A large bowl or small
bucket
- Watering can with rose
attachment spray bottle
-Spray bottle
1. Take a sharp scissors and
poke several large-ish holes in
the bottom of your plastic pie
container.
2. Cut as many 2-foot lengths of
string as you have holes.
3. Poke string through holes and
pull about 8 inches of string
through the bottom of the pie
container. Leave strings
dangling.
1. Spread out excess string on
the bottom of the pie
container. It will look like a pile
of spaghetti.
2. In a bowl or bucket, mix your
seed-starting medium with
water until soil is moist, not
wet.
3. Fill pie container with damp
seed starting mix, until it is
about ½ an inch from the top.
It will go right on top of the
string pile
4. Gently flatten and pat down
the soil
1. Follow the directions on
the back of your seed
package carefully. Do not
plant seeds deeper than is
recommended.
2. Gently pat the soil on top
of seeds.
3. Replace plastic cover
over the pie container
1. Fill the bottom container or
bowl with warm water, and
set the container with your
seeds on top of it, so that
the strings, hanging down are
sitting in the water. That way
they will wick up water into
your soil, keeping it moist, not
wet. You don't want the seed
container itself sitting in the
water.
2. Check every day to make sure
bottom is filled with water.
3. If soil feels dry use a spray
bottle to mist until soil is moist.
Hints For Seed Starting:
1. Make sure to label your seeds.
2. Place seeds in a warm spot until
after they have germinated. NOTE:
Window sills aren’t warm!
3. Remove clear plastic cover after
seeds have germinated.
4. Keep bottom filled with water do not let soil dry out
5. Once your seeds have
germinated, you are ready to begin
Part Two of this mini-course.
Plant Mini-Course
Part Two: Growing Plants
To get to this point of the course, you had to
successfully germinate your seeds. Now that you
have seedlings, they have special needs of their
own. This part of the course deals with the needs of
seedlings. You will need to meet the needs of your
seedlings if you want them to grow for your project.
Plants need light to grow, Typically, this lights comes
in the form of sunlight. There are two things about
the sunlight that are important – the amount of it and
the intensity of it. This time of year (fall and winter)
that can be a problem. We have shorter days and the
sun is at a lower angle in the sky. This means that the
sunlight is less intense. If you don’t believe me, try to
get a sunburn in October.
For your plants to grow, you will need to provide
artificial light for your plants and you will need to
make sure that the intensity of the light is high
enough for plant growth.
Getting the Correct Light Intensity
The source of our light is going to be florescent lights. Specifically, you
should just use shop lights with regular cool florescent bulbs in them.
NOTE: You DO NOT need to buy expensive grow lights. They make
absolutely no difference in how your plants will grow. You will use these
because they give off a good spectra of light for your plants and they
don’t get hot. That last part is really important. Since our florescent
bulbs are nowhere near as intense as sunlight (again, if you don’t believe
me, try to get a sunburn from florescent lights), you have to have them
really close to your seedlings. When I say close, I am talking about having
the lights 2
inches
above your seedlings.
Here is what a shop light looks like:
Once you have your light(s), you will
Need some way to support them over
Your plants. The next slide has some
suggestions.
Building a Light Stand
There are many ways to build a light stand for your plants.
Here are some links with examples and plans:
This one uses PVC pipes:
http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/building-a-pvc-lightframe-kit/
This one uses wood:
http://www.growgardentomatoes.com/light-stand.html
NOTE: These are only suggestions! The main thing is that
you need a way to hang your lights above your seedlings and
you have to be able to adjust the height of the lights.
Well, there you go! You have successfully germinated seeds and nurtured
your seedlings. You are all set for success with your plant project!
Hopefully, you feel comfortable germinating seeds and growing plants. If
you don’t have your exact experiment decided yet, just look at all of the
things that make up this mini-course. There are so many independent
variables that you could test. Everything from variables that could affect
seed germination rates to how well your plants grow. You could change the
type of lighting, the type of soil, the amount of water, things that you
add to the water, etc.. The possibilities are endless. This is where your
research will come into play.