In February we reported how pupils at St Mary’s CofE Primary Academy in Hunslet were growing salad vegetables indoors.
The growing tower has lights and a pumping system to provide the best growing conditions indoors, no matter what the weather is doing outside.
Vicky, who is in Year 4, has written this report of their work:
Almost a year ago, Hunslet St Mary’s were lucky to receive a growing tower from Rethink Food. Advantages of using this method are: Grow more often; you can explore them in class; all year round; be healthy and it doesn’t use soil.
On 31 January we put plants in a propagator, which is a growing machine that has light and water in it to help them grow. Then on 7 February, Mr Atkinson came to assist us.
First of all we built the growing tower, it was interesting to see it slowly growing upwards! Next we put in water for the plant to suck up, I like to think its stem is a straw! We put nutrients in the water and we said it was diet coke because it looked brown! Before putting the plants in we passed them around on our tables! It was fun to look at the roots and the different features of them.
We then finally put the plants in, systematically of course! We put the Cucumelon on the bottom as it grows down. The Asparagus Pea grows really high so it went to the bottom. It was then that we put the names of the plants near them.
We can also measure our plants and put dates to see how they’ve grown, so then we can make graphs about them! We’re really proud of our plants and we can’t wait to stomach them! We can make meals, food, sauce, pasta and I’m looking forward to taking them home to eat with my family!
