Advice re: a gardening science project

[oldmobie]

This is my youngest son's science project: a Miracle Grow Root Viewer. The front panel lifts to reveal a window to the root system. It came with seeds for radish carrot and onion. It sat on a shelf for a long time before we used it. It was planted on 9-24. Only the radish has germinated.



For what it's worth, there's no hypothesis to it. It's not an experiment in that sense. It's about observation. There are charts to track the top growth and root growth.

My questions are:
1) Should non-germinating seeds be replaced? How soon?
2) Since I have carrot seeds to give him, but not onion, should I give him beet or potato seed as a replacement? Which has a showier root system?

[steev]

Beets or potatoes might be too bulky (can't see how thick the space is); maybe peas, so he could also see the nodules. When the thrill wears off, perhaps an ant farm.

[Carol Deppe]

oldmobie--I would skip the carrots, as they are slow to germinate. Radish germinates faster than just about anything. I'd get a packet of radish seed from a reliable seed company, not use the old seed that came with the kit.

Like steev, I would also suggest a legume such as peas or beans. That way your kid can ask real questions such as whether inoculating matters, actually following the formation of nodules. (I've never found inoculation to actually matter given good garden soils not crapped up by chemical agriculture.) I would suggest dumping the soil that came with the kit and getting "real" soil from an organic veggie garden. Note that Miracle Grow is a non-organic fertilizer. If you are an organic gardener you would want to dump the soil, fertilizer, and advice that came with the kit and substitute your own soil, seeds, and advice.

Corn is also really interesting to follow the root development of. The Indian and many heirloom corns put out their root first, for example, which may grow up to 2" or so before the shoot emerges at all. Modern sweet corn varieties often put up about as much shoot as root more or less simultaneously. I think you accidentally select for the later if you thin too early. But I think the pattern of putting out a very vigorous root first and sending up a shoot only after the root is established can work better in the field. Such corn is probably less vulnerable to getting pulled up by birds. By the time the plants emerge above ground the root is so thoroughly established the plant is difficult to pull up, and the kernel is less likely to pull up when a bird tugs on the shoot. And there is less food remaining in the seed. So the bird has a harder time getting at the kernel reward, and the reward isn't as great if/when it does.

[oldmobie]

Today made three weeks and still only the radish has germinated. We broke out my seed stash and he chose a pea seed from Joseph's landrace and an indian corn seed from my largest ear of 2013. (They're kept refrigerated, so I expect them to germinate.) Then he marked out "carrot" and "onion" on his observation sheet, wrote "pea" and "indian corn" in the appropriate places and dated both. With the live radish, we didn't change the soil. Some time in the future, we might repeat the experiment with different soil. The comparison would be interesting, though not definitive, since we aren't recording or controlling temps, nor recording watering frequency, or the light level.

[flowerweaver]

Just a thought--if he gets really interested in sprouting things, why not get him a sprouting kit and put him in charge of 'farming' the family's edible sprouts? I really enjoy using mine! And it's a great way of assuring you get more amino acids in your diet. There are a number of ones on the market, or it can be as simple as a mason jar with cheesecloth as a lid. It's also a great way to use up extra seeds off of brassicas, sunflowers, amaranths, etc.