One of the 5th graders came up to my desk at the end of the day with a bag in her hand.
"Miss H, my grandma from Arizona wanted me to give this to you. It's cotton bolls."
I oohed and ahhed appropriately, then she handed me another bag, a little slimier...
"And this is an... olive branch from their tree and I think a piece of real aloe vera from her garden."
As I peered into the bag she added, "Yeah, I should've given it to you a while ago, but I forgot."
The aloe had turned brown and squishy and a few of the olives had a lovely patch of mold starting. Still, pretty neat. After school I picked some seeds out of the cotton boll to plant (apparently they're easy to grow, especially if you can keep them above 60 degrees F).
I'm also going to try growing the olive seeds. Those are a bit trickier. From my research, they take 40 days to germinate. Plus you have to nick the end before soaking them in water to give them a head start. I tried trimming the end off with a pliers, but ended up shattering the seed. The seed coat is quite thick. I'm not sure if I'll try that with the rest of the seeds. I decided to let them dry out overnight to see if that helps it cut easier.
Now I just need to brave the cold shed to grab some pots and potting soil... Sounds like the polar vortex will be breaking this weekend! Then next week we'll be in the 30s-40s! Hooray!
No comments:
Post a Comment