On Sun, 27 Oct 2002 09:17:39 -0000, "Sally Pointer"
wrote:

I'm doing a basic botany workshop in January where I want to send each child
home with a 'mystery seed' that they plant at the workshop to tend. Being
January obviously limits the choice a bit and I'm after some inspiration for
suitable seeds. My current best plan is to mix up a packet of tomato, chilli
and pepper seeds as many of those will start indoors ok in January then I
can give them enough details about the growing habits to enable them to look
after them, but they'll need to wait until it fruits to find out exactly
what they've got.

Your plan is hard to understand. Do you intend to have the
children plant the seed at the workshop, then take the pot home
to be tended? Or do they plant the seed at the workshop and tend
it there until much later? Since you say it is a workshop in
January, am I right in inferring that the workshop is only a few
days or weeks long, or does it run for several months into the
spring?

Whatever the details, I'm afraid your plan isn't going to work
very well. Tomatoes and peppers are all warm-weather crops and
January is no time to be sowing them. It's w-a-y too early.[1]
The seedlings will almost certainly all die long before it's time
to plant them out in late May. This is true even if you can
provide proper greenhouse facilities with supplemental lighting
right through to May rather than (unrealistically) expecting the
children to nurse the seedlings along at home.

Even assuming that the seedlings survive and are successfully
planted out, they won't fruit until late summer or early autumn
-- long after your workshop has ended, I suspect.

And there's the objection that these plants are too closely
related for the exercise. They are all members of the Solanaceae;
moreover, chilis and peppers are not botanically distinct, being
merely cultivated forms of the same species.

Any better ideas?

I suggest you ask yourself the question "What is the point of the
exercise?" or "What are the children expected to learn in
consequence of carrying the exercise out?" In what way does
growing a "mystery seed" add to their botanical knowledge?

To be frank, the idea impresses me as a poorly thought-out Bright
Idea that will make little difference to the children's learning.
Because of the high risk of failure it may actually be
counter-productive.

You might do better to acquire a collection of flowering
houseplants -- ones that are in flower during your workshop --
and use those as mystery plants to be identified.


[1] In the eastern US, March 15 is the recommended date for
indoor sowing of tomatoes and peppers. This recommendation is
made with special reference to low light levels. (R. Milton
Carlton, "The New Vegetable & Fruit Garden Book")

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada