The Baby Plants
One of Little Miss' favorite snacks is chocolate milk with chia seeds and oats. She was sipping her milk while we were having our lesson about the parts of the plants when I told her that there are actually baby chia plants in her food. She found that hard to believe and so we decided to start this interesting Science experiment.
They were so tiny and they had been packed and they were not like those that we get from the vegetables that we grow in our garden.
Can the chia seeds and flax seeds that we use in our food really grow?
There's only one way to find out.
Experiment Time!
We simply couldn't pass on this very simple and easy experiment. The materials were readily available and it would satisfy the kids' curious minds. I've personally grown some flax seeds before for some micro-greens to add to the salads, etc. but I've not tried the chia seeds.
What We Need:
- some flax seeds
- some chia seeds
- reusable food tub from a take-away
- tissue paper
- water
- curiosity 😉
The Process:
What Do Plants Need In Order To Grow?
"Mommy, don't plants need soil in order to grow?" Little Miss asked.
Ahhhhm, yeah... but the seeds can grow with just water for now. When the baby plants come out then we need to transfer them to the soil.
For now, this set up will do:
We covered the container to keep it moist.
Of course, we need to visit it daily and water it and make sure it does not dry up.
Did The Seeds Grow?
The following day, we checked our seeds and we saw them starting to open up!!
Are the baby flax and chia starting to grow?
Today is the third day and the baby chia plants are starting to show their little leaves. We noticed that the chia plants are growing faster than the flax.
At this rate, we will have some micro-greens for our salad. The photo above was taken this morning and now, a few hours later, they have grown more! Simply amazing!
On another note, we have another experiment that seemed to have failed already. We were trying to grow some roots from a piece of potato but apparently we used a bad potato and it is starting to rot. Too bad. We will have to re-do that one.