Monday 17 August 2009

The School project with snails!!!

Ok....I thought I would share with you the little school project that we have going on!

My Nephew has just turned 9 years old and his school is taking part in the 'Morrisons, Let's grow...Big Bean Challenge'.

Basically at the end of the summer term all the children were sent home with an info pack and some seeds so that they could join in the challenge if they wanted to. With me having the allotment and being into the growing stuff my sister asked me if I would do this with my nephew as she isn't really into plants and didn't want to spoil his chances of growing anything...lol!

We went ahead and planted the beans in a margarine tub with a bit of soil.....there were six beans in the pack so we planted them all...kept them warm and watered and then waited.


7 Days later we had bean seedlings that were 11cm....we were very happy at this, especially as all the seeds had germinated.


green bean seedlings
seedlings...7 days old

Then we had to go away and so a neighbour tended to the beans and when we came back we found that they were still very healthy..(if a little box bound) and had grown to 19cm's tall which was 9 cm's higher than the measurement chart they sent with the grow pack.


green bean seedlings
seedlings..17 days old.

Being so late on I thought the best thing to do would be to plant the beans on in my Little greenhouse...after all the pepper plants were doing well in here and I thought it might give us the chance of some vegetables before the season was over. This did not turn out to be the best option though as whi8lst I was in hospital the snails got in and ate the plants...BLOODY THINGS!!!!!


green bean seedlings
The snail damage!!

So now we wait and pray that we will get some foliage back before school restarts so that we have better photos to send back in to school with my Nephew!! Have anyone else's children's schools done the challenge?? If so how are you getting on??

7 comments:

  1. Thank you Tanya for your comment over at my blog. Your nephew's Big Bean challenge has brought back memories of similar tasks we had at primary school. He was doing great until those snails ... but a gardener never gives up, even age 9! Hope all goes well with them from now on.
    Jeanne

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  2. I'm doing this with my children, I've been a bit concerned that our plants are so short (approx 20cm) but at least we have leaves! Mind you, we went on holiday and came back to bald radishes, completely scalped by caterpillers.

    Tracey.
    (Norfolk Kitchen on Twitter)

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  3. Thanks for your comments guys...i don't think we'll give up..like all 9 year olds he's more than a little stubborn!!!!

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  4. My nine year old gets bored - even her own bed of rainbow carrots, lettuce and spring onions hasn't inspired her. She's dead keen on fishing though so all is not lost...

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  5. That's a shame...maybe try growing something that seeds quicker with her??? The green beans stated sprouting in a few days so it is a good thing to start with...carrots kind of take a long time to grow!!

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  6. My OS sends his sympathies - we have had blight on his tomatoes, but hey ho the ups and downs are what mke it exciting!

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  7. That's terrible. My kids aren't doing anything like this.

    Dian
    www.GroceryShopForFREE.com

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keep it clean...keep it relevant...I look forward to reading your comments!!