Like Overcoming Bad Habits, Sometimes it Takes a Long Time

Sprouting Brown Lentils & Garlic

THE BENEFITS

• RESPONSIBILITY: Give children responsibility for buying seeds, setting up the activity, watering, observing and reporting evidence of growth.
• OBSERVATION SKILLS: Encourage children to make regular observations.
• COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Discuss the activities with the children. Ask them what you might need; what other seeds or plants they might be able to sprout; why the sprout died; what makes plants grow: why the root always goes down; why some grow faster than others etc.
• RECORDING SKILLS: Recording activities could include the following: verbal recording on a mobile phone; graphing growth against time; daily written observations with one simple sentence about something they observed; give an account to a parent when they come home from work.
• UNDERSTANDING DEPENDENCE: Assist children to appreciate the dependence of seeds and plants on water and light. Place batches of seeds in different locations, e.g. near the window, in a dark corner, in the fridge.
• PATIENCE AND COOPERATION: Waiting for seeds, cloves and vegetables to sprout develops patience. Some seeds, bulbs, cloves, etc. take quite a long time, some are seasonal so the waiting time can run into months. It is advisable to have a mix of fast and slower sprouting plants so children can have something of interest to look at regularly.

Sprouting Brown Lentils

NEEDED ITEMS
A relatively deep, plastic jar lid, cotton wool and brown lentils.

THE SETUP

1. Fill the lid with cotton wool.
2. Pour water onto the cotton wool, so the water is just below the top of the cotton wool.
3. Place some brown lentils on top of the wet cotton wool so there is a little space between the lentils.
4. Put the lid on a window sill or somewhere where there are light and warmth. Make sure you place it where it will not be kicked or knocked over.
5. Check the seeds twice a day.
6. Ensure the cotton wool is kept very moist.

My Observations

	Day 0 I placed some cotton wool in a deep jar lid, wet it, and then sprinkled brown lentils onto the cotton wool.
	Day 3 I can see some lentil seeds have sprouted.
	Day 6 Now the sprouted lentils have grown tall. Most of the lentils have sprouted.
	Day 7 From what I could tell, all the lentils have sprouted and grown very tall. Many of the shoots have leaf buds.
	Day 13 I can now see that the lentil shoots have leaves and have grown up to make a little forest.

Sprouting Garlic

NEEDED ITEMS
A medium-size drinking glass or glass jar, paper towelling, cotton wool and garlic cloves.

THE SETUP

1. Place a piece of folded and cut paper towelling around the inside of the glass.
2. Pack cotton wool inside the paper towelling until it comes up to the top.
3. Peel the outer, dry layers off the number of cloves you need but don't cut the cloves in any way.
4. Place the cloves of garlic around the glass between the glass and the paper towelling. Make sure the pointed end of the cloves is facing upwards. A table knife would be handy to create a space for the cloves.
5. Pour water onto the cotton wool so that the water level is just under the garlic cloves.
6. Place the glass on a window sill or somewhere where there are light and warmth. Make sure you put it where it will not be kicked or knocked over.
7. Check the cloves twice a day.
8. Ensure the cotton wool is kept very moist.

My Observations

	Day 0 I placed some paper towelling around the inside of a drinking glass. I packed the inside with cotton wool then put some garlic cloves between the glass and paper towelling.
	Day 1 To my surprise, I can see some roots shooting from all the cloves.
	Day 7 Green shoots have grown on all the garlic cloves; the first appeared a couple of days ago. I notice that some of the shoots seem stronger than others.
	Day 13 I can see how vigorous the roots have grown. They look like long silky tubes that do not have laterals branching from them.
	Day 18 The young garlic plants are ready to plant out. I could have planted them out on day seven, but I wanted to see how they grew with only water and no other nutrients. Of course, planting garlic straight into the soil is an option, but I think they sprouted more quickly indoors. I will plant them out into a planter in the next day or so.

By
Richard Warden