Five seed race

What You Will Need:

• Use your recent experience to make a list of the materials you will need.
• You may need to adapt the things you use.
• Chose your own selection of microgreen seeds.
• Have all the items ready before you start.

Setting the scene

Imagine you have a party to host in a few weeks time and you want to grow your own microgreens to include in the salad. How do you know when to plant them so they will all be ready to cut fresh on the day of the party? If you were a commercial microgreen grower you might need to do the same type of experiment to decide when to sow your different types of seed so they are all ready to harvest on the same day.

What to do

Use the same method you learnt about in Germination Trials. Set up your fair test to investigate five different microgreens to work out how many days before the party you need to sow each of them so they are perfect for picking on the day. Choose your own seeds suitable as microgreens. The next pictures give you clues.

Note: These pictures do not show a perfect fair test. Use the two picture clues below to see what needs to be improved on before you start your own experiment.

Clue 1

Clue 2

Example of seedlings after a few days

What you found

1. How long did each seed type take to reach a size suitable for harvesting? (Microgreens are harvested by trimming their tops off, leaving the lower part of the plant to regrow.)
2. If your party is going to be on 22 February, what dates would you need to sow each type of seed for them to be ready on time?
3. Decide on a suitable way to record what you did and what you found out. Report your findings back to others in your class.

Related resources

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