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Germinator

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Sent in by:
Amanda of Sherwood, AR

The Germinator. Not a movie by Arnold Schwarzenpumpernickel. It's a place for growing seeds.
Materials

Materials Needed


  • a few seeds
  • paper towel
  • stapler
  • plastic bag (the kind with the zipper works best)
  • ruler
  • a half cup of water

Instructions

Instructions


  1. First, fold a paper towel so that it just fits inside the bag.
  2. Put it into the plastic bag.
  3. Take your ruler and measure 3 inches from the top of the bag and staple a bunch of staples in a row. Now you have a mini-pocket, 3 inches deep, with paper sticking out. This is where your seeds are going to sit.
  4. Then, pour the half cup of water into the bag so that your seeds have something to drink. Then it gets heavy.
  5. Then, take your seeds and put them in that mini-pocket.
  6. Zip up your bean bag so no air can escape or get into it, sealing the mini-pocket. Tape them to a window and watch your seeds. When you can see the roots and stems, your seeds have germinated. Plant them in a pot or in the ground and see if they grow!




Some of your Results

ZOOM Fan, age 5 of WY wrote:
After 2 days all of our sunflower seeds had sprouted and 2 green beans had sprouted and one snap pea. We planted sunflowers, green beans, snap peas, watermelon and lima beans.

Imole, age 5 wrote:
It was so cool my plant grew in one day I planted only 2 seeds one is alive.

Toluwa, age 8 wrote:
I planted one brown bean and it grew right now its 6 inches I planted

Toluwa, age 8 wrote:
Idid mystery seeds and it worked I planted beans and they sprouted. and I expect beans this year

Anna, age 6 of Natick, MA wrote:
I tried this with 10 pea, 8 string bean, 10 cucumber and 10 sunflower seeds. So far only the pea and string bean seeds have sprouted. 9 peas have sprouted and all the string bean seeds have sprouted.

Ryan, age 13 of Chicago, IN wrote:
I planted 30 sunflower seeds. Out of 30, 13 sprouted. Out of 13, 7 got to be big enough to plant, and out of7, 5 survived. Finally, out of 5, 2 are still alive! They are doing great!

Jacob, age 15 of FL wrote:
I used 4 large lima beans. In just 4 days I saw a little root start to come out. only a week later the stem tried to form. I then planted them. 4 days later, the stems came up. One of the beans didn't make it. A month and a half later my plants were producing pods! I'll put these in the germinator and start over again next year!

Raejon, age 14 of Boston, MA wrote:
It really worked! My seeds grew in about three days. It was an easy and grade A science project.

Alexandra, age 9 of Carnegie, PA wrote:
It took afew days before the seeds started to grow. After a week, leaves started to grow. When they got bigger than the bag, I planted them in a planter. Now their doing great!

Etinosa, age 10 of Houston, TX wrote:
It was so cool the roots have already started growing they are starting to turn green. Its not like I have never seen plants grow, it is just that this one doesnt need soil. Most plants need lots of soil to grow, it is so amazing. I love it.

Kyanna, age 6 of Clarkston, WA wrote:
I put the seeds in the bag and put water in the bottom of it and 4 days went by and I started to see them grow. It is so cool that you can see the seeds grow in the bag.

Delia of West Chester, PA wrote:
This experimnet was totally HOT!! I put these sunflower seeds into the bag and POOF. They like grew!! Wow.

Arianny, age 13 of Reading, PA wrote:
When I tried this I had so much fun. The beans grew in about 2 weeks. Can you try to do it wit other seeds? If so can you guys please do it wit stawberrys? Thanks for listening!!!

Stephanie of White Plains, MD wrote:
The seeds sprouted at the same time, but grew at different rates.

Nancie, age 14 of Brooklyn, NY wrote:
I saw that and I think that the seed will germinate better in the dark because light will keep it fresh and I think it doesn't need to be freh to germinate.

Erica, age 10 wrote:
That was a cool experiment. In school we did this once in 4th grade. It was fun. It growed in a little leaf.

Kevin M., age 15 of Antioch, IL wrote:
I succesfuly made my germanator, and it was alot of fun. I put 5 sunflower seeds in it and they all sprouted in just 4 days. I never thought it would work so good. I had alot of fun making the germanator and watching the seeds grow. I plan on making many more in the future. Thanks!

Grace J., age 7 of Honolulu, HI wrote:
My seeds grew it was so cool. Then I put them in the pot. So easy to do!

Andrea D., age 12 wrote:
It worked really well! My seeds grew into pretty flowers! I was supprised that it worked so well!

Elisabeth F., age 9 of Annapolis, MD wrote:
It took 5 days for them to grow. I planted them after they sprouted leaves. One grew up to 5 and a half inches tall and the other one grew up to 8 and a half inches tall.

Rachel, age 11 of Granite City, IL wrote:
It was really cool!!! I put one in the dark, and one in the light. The one in the dark grew a lot faster than the one in the light. I was really amazed!!!

Amber B., age 9 of Trenton, TX wrote:
When I did it I put some lower than it should be. I used 5 seeds. Only one of them grew. It was the lowest one. It grew very fast. And it grew big. It only took a couple days for it to grow. After a few weeks thats when it got huge.

Curtina J., age 13 of St. Louis, MO wrote:
I put one bag in the light and one in the dark the one in the dark germinated faster than the on in the light. It took four days for the one in the dark and one week and four days for the one in the light.

Emma, age 11 of College Station, TX wrote:
I planted 13 sunflower seeds. Out of 13, 9 sprouted. Out of 9, 7 got to be big enough to plant, and out of 7, 3 survived. Finally, out of 3, 2 are still alive! They are doing great!


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