“You can't reach the brain till you go through the heart” – Joe Dombrowski

I'm thrilled to welcome back Joe Dombrowski (@mrDtimes3) to the show after our wonderful episode on Plants in the Classroom a couple of years ago. Since then a lot has changed, Joe and I have become IRL friends (I was able to visit him in 2019 and we took an amazing trip to the Amazon Spheres together which you'll hear about in the episode), Joe has become a full time comedian AND… classrooms are looking very different these days. Since many kids are home with the pandemic, Joe and I thought we'd put together a list of fun planty experiments and projects to do with kids while we spend this time at home together. There is a project for every type of kid and every age. We hope this episode helps with ideas to get children (or adult children like us!) off of their phones and into the dirt and getting curious about plants. Please share your projects with us on instagram! @mrdtimes3 & @bloomandgrowradio

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In this episode we learn:

• Joe and Maria remember their trip to the Amazon Spheres together
• Joe's opinion on kids going back to school
• [12:25] Project 1: Seed Germination in a Bag
• [19:50] Project 2: Sweet Potato Experiment and understanding the scientific process
• Project 3: Pothos Propagation 3 Ways
• Project 4: Fairy Gardens and Terrariums
• Project 5: List of Interactive Plants for Kids
• Joe's list of his personal favorite plants in his collection
• Joe's most recent plant parent win

Indoor Plant Projects for Kids

Seed Germination

Needed:

• 1 2 gallon plastic bag
• Marker for labeling bags
• 2 cups of soil
• large seeds for planting (try code Bloom20 for 20% off any of Territorial Seed Company's seed selection)
• Water
• Tape or a pin to attach bag to window, wall or bulletin board

1. Take a 2 gallon bag and fill with 2 cups of soil and a light amount of water until it's fully moist but not soaking wet
2. Select a type of large seed: lima bean and pumpkin are Joe's favorites- he says the bigger the better
3. Plant the seed in the bag- Joe suggests to plant the seed close to the outer wall so you can see the germination
4. Seal the bag, leave as much air as possible
5. Pin the bag to a bulletin board or tape it to your window or wall that gets some light
6. What you can notice
   1. Water cycle: water will evaporate and then precipate and run down the bag
   2. Germination, watching a seed sprout (notice what happens to the water after the seed sprouts)
   3. Root structure and growth
   4. You can let the plant die and hypothesis with the students on how/why it died and talk about the important of plants decomposing and returning to the earth for
   5. Open the bag and let the plant continue to grow until it dies because of lack of water
   6. You can transplant the seed into a pot and see that it grows (make sure you have enough light for the plant to thrive)
   7. Try several different seeds in labeled bags all tacked to the same area- the kids can watch the different germination and growth rates of different types of plants
   8. Encourage the child to keep a little tracker to draw and record the plant's growth everyday

photo from https://imgur.com/SLnb1

Sweet Potato Experiment and understanding the scientific process

Needed:

• 3 cups
• toothpicks
• 3 sweet potatoes
• water
• rooting hormone
• liquid of child's choice

1. Pick a 3 sweet potatoes from the grocery store, if you can pick one with eyes, choose those!
2. Put each sweet potato in three different mediums: water, water with liquid root hormone, any liquid student chooses
   1. Anchor the sweet potatoes with toothpicks so that the bottom 1/3 is under the water and top 2/3 are above the water line
3. Encourage your child to hypothesize the growth pattern of each sweet potato
4. Encourage your child to record the growth of each potato in a journal to watch the growth process
5. This is a great blog going over the entire experiment

Pothos Propagation

Ideas

• Teach about roots through node cuttings of a pothos and watch them grow
• A teacher can propagate one pothos and send cuttings in the mail to all the students to have a “class plant”
• Teach a propagation class and have students take their own cuttings and then trade with each other
• Joe loves pothos, string of hearts and tradescantia zebrina as easy choices to propagate

Fairy Garden or Terrarium

Needed:

This can be as simple or elaborate

• To make your own terrarium listen to episode 19 Terrarium 101
• Here is a link to the book A Family Guide to Terrariums
• Bloom and Grow Radio Amazon Storefront with Terrarium/ Fairy Garden ideas

Link for Fairy Garden Images

Interactive Plants to Have Kids Tend to at home

• Petting Cactus
• Carnivorous Plants: pitcher plants or venus flytraps!
• Mimosa Pudica, or Sensitive Plant
• Plants that move: oxalis, prayer plants
• Mushroom Grow Kits! This is my favorite one from Back to the Roots!
• Back to the Roots Fishtank Water/Microgreen Garden
• Radishes- seed to harvest is under a month, it's a really fun fast project to do with kids to help them understand how to grow their own food!
• Amaryllis Bulbs

Mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 23: Plants in the Classroom with @mrdtimes3
• Maria's new tiktok account
• Bloom and Grow Youtube Channel
• Here is a link to the book A Family Guide to Terrariums
• Mushroom Grow Kits! This is my favorite one from Back to the Roots!
• Back to the Roots Fishtank Water/Microgreen Garden
• Maria's episode on JOE's podcast, Social Studies

Thank you to our episode sponsors:

Soltech Solutions Luxury Grow Lights: Whether its simply getting through the lower light winter- or if you’re like me and you’ve just got too many plants  and too few windows and need to bring more light indoors so your collection can keep growing- Soltech Solutions has the luxury lighting option for you! Soltech is offering BAGR listeners 20% off with code 20BLOOM at soltechsolutions.com once again thats soltechsolutions.com and code 20BLOOM at checkout for 20%off.

Thank you Territorial Seed Co for sponsoring today's episode! Territorial Seed Co provides high quality seeds and plants (over 2000 varieties) that are tried and tested on their 75 acre farm and have a ton of fall varieties for us to try! For seeds, their online garden planner, how to videos and more visit TerritorialSeed.com and use code BLOOM20 for 20% off.

Follow Joe

Website: https://www.mrdtimes3.com/
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