Day 53 in the life of a Fast Plant

The end of the Fast Plant Project was celebrated by harvesting the seeds. After 53 days of photo documenting and studying the life of this plant, the seeds were harvested saying good bye to the plants and putting closure to this project. The class ended last week and I hope the students will reach this point. Almost like a pilgrimage, journaling the life of a Fast Plant from seed to seed can reveal a lot of the awe and wonder of life. Much has been learned along the way about life, the law of the harvest, and the life cycle. The plants fate and destiny lies stored in the 200 seeds that were harvested.

Day 52 in the life of a Fast Plant

All the pods have turned brown as one can see compared to the green left in the stems. One advantage of using the Fast Plant to study biology is the availability of free good literature. There is an instruction sheet on seeds and harvesting. All the pods appear to be ready to pluck, put in a zip lock bag, broked up by hand, and the seeds separated according to the instructions. Some pods only have one seed and some have a dozen. The seed content varied from pod to pod.

Day 51 in the life of a Fast Plant

Indoor-outdoor thermometers were put in the light box to determine the growing temperature. They read 78°F and 83 °F with an average of 80. When the sensors were taken out of the light box, the temperature dropped to an average of 70 °F . So, the light box provided both heat and light. I still plan on harvesting the entire plant in two days since the last pod has ripened.  But to my amazement, I found buds growing again. The plant wants to flower while most of the plant is in senesces with dry pods. I pruned all the new buds, without sympathy, figuring it is time to close this project. However, it seems that in nature the plant would continue with another small wave of buds and flowers. Fast plant literature state the optimal temperature is between 72°F to 82°F and that life cycle is 40 days. The experiment was done at optimal temperature and is now on day 51. When the literature states the plant will produce seed in 40 days, it means the first pods, not the whole plant. It takes 53 days for this whole plant to seed.

Day 50 in the life of a Fast Plant

This photo zooms in on the last pod that has to ripen before all the pods can be picked and harvested for seeds. I see the shadow of 10 seeds in the pod. Today is Wednesday, and I am thinking that by Saturday the plants will be ripe enough to be harvested putting closure on this project. I have made it a goal to photo document the entire life cycle from seed to seed. In all these years that I have been teaching the fast plant course, I have never taken the plant completely from seed to seed. I am realizing now that it is not the perfect plant to use in a 6 week course, since the plant is now at week 7 and still not ready to harvest. It looks more like an 8 week life cycle to me. It would have been ideal to do this harvest activity with the class for closure. Some of student’s plants seemed to grow faster than others. So possibly, home temperature may affect growth rate. However, this plant was kept at 80 oF so I think the life cycle from seeds to seeds will typically be 8 weeks in a lightbox.

Day 49 in the life of a Fast Plant

Class Spring of 2016: These are the real harvest of the Fast Plant project.

Day 48 in the life of a Fast Plant

The formation of seeds in the plant is like harvesting conclusions from a science project. Just as the seeds conclude the life of the plant and provide life for a new plant, conclusions end the life of a project and provide information for the next. When asking the students what they liked about the course, 6-year old Joshua said he liked how plants live forever. He was amazed at how the life cycle allowed the plants to keep recycling. Plants have evolved beyond just being alive, and have developed a reproductive cycle that continues its existence through inheritable genetics. If the plants are not pollinated at the right time, there will be no seeds. The project taught the importance of timing and opportunity in the life for cross pollination. If we collaborate and communicate with other in our creativity, then ideas are cross pollinated and live on in new projects when the conclusions are recorded and communicated. This course taught children at an early age that life has a cycle and seeks to continue in future generations.

Day 47 in the life of a Fast Plant

The last seed pod that needs ripening has been identified in this picture with a circle. The higher seed pods have ripened first and the lower ones are still green. It seems that the green is fading from top to bottom. When this lower green pod becomes dry brown, the plant is expected to be ready for complete harvesting and the seed pods thrashed for seeds. The most important concepts learned from this project are 1) the law of the harvest and 2) the life cycle. One hears a lot about “the law of the harvest”, but the student learns the concept first hand in this project. The final plant is a culmination of planting, nurturing, cultivation, growth, and harvesting. The same principle hold true for personal growth. What knowledge, skills, and abilities we wish to personally gain has to grow and take the same timely process. Also, everything has a life cycle

Day 46 in the life of a Fast Plant

Cornucopia, the horn of plenty - symbol of abundance, originated from Greek mythology and can be found in western civilization art ever since. The horn of plenty is filled with agricultural products and represents the advancement that modern civilization has made from hunters-gathers to agriculture.  Industrialized farming provides even more abundance and has led to today’s knowledge worker era. With this baseline of abundance, our society can focus on a new generation of knowledge workers whose main capital is knowledge.  Children can now be nurtured at an early age to be future engineers, medical professionals, scientists, business professionals, and academics, whose jobs will be to "think for a living". Super Saturday is nurturing our children for growth in the knowledge worker age.

Day 45 in the life of a Fast Plant

Tomorrow is the last class of the My First Plant course. The plants are not ready to harvest yet, there are still some green pods. I am disappointed, because I wanted to show the students how to harvest seeds from the entire plant. However, another concept has been harvested from this project, patience. Also, while I was looking for the last pod that will turn brown before I can harvest the seeds; I found this… a flower! I never expected it. Here the plant is in senesces; much of it is dried up and dead, with many seed pods ready to harvest. I was just waiting for the plant to finish dying so finish the course and what to I find? A flower! My conclusion is … life will be productive to the very end and does not fit easily into our schedule. I see this characteristic in us. At any point in our life cycle, we instinctively strive to be creative and productive to the very end. I plant to continue the blog till the seeds are harvested.

Day 44 in the life of a Fast Plant

Cornucopia, the horn of plenty, is a symbol of abundance dating back ancient Greece mythology where strong Hercules broke off a horn of one of his divine goat attendants Amalthea, and it provided unending nourishment for him. Plants provide unending nourishment in our lives. Most plants reach seed and are harvested in the fall, often in November. Harvest festivals like Thanksgiving are celebrated with symbols of Cornucopia, because of the unending nourishment that we have gotten from plants. If they become extinct, then so will we. The Cornucopia is being used celebrate the harvest of our Fast Plant seeds and the completion of this course.

Day 43 in the life of a Fast Plant

There is a human principle that came from growing plants that states that a person reaps what they sow, called the “Law of The Harvest.” In other words, if you want a harvest, then you have to plant and cultivate. People apply this principle to their lives. If you want to earn money, then you have to work. The more you sow and cultivate, the more the harvest. The other side of this principle is… don’t expect to reap what you have not sown and cultivated. For example, don’t expect to pass a school exam unless you get a book and study. Also, don’t expect roses, if you plant Fast Plants.  So, I have cultivated these plants for 43 days spending weeks of work and I should not be surprised if all I get are Fast Plant seeds. What good are they? What am I going to do with them? I can’t eat them and if I plant them it will take more time and work to continue them. I should not be disappointed in harvesting something I cannot use if I understood the Law of the Harvest. However, are Fast Plant seeds the only things harvested? The purpose was not to get more seeds, but to teach the plant life cycle. If these 6 years old students learned how grow plants, their life cycle, and have a better understanding of life, then I would say we did indeed harvest what was meant to be sown. Time will tell if these seeds of knowledge grow in the minds of these students.

Day 41 in the life of a Fast Plant

Plants produce seeds to survive as a species. This plant is dying and looks sad. Compared to its flowers, it is hard to see beauty in 26 seed pods. The beauty is that the seed pods mean its species will continue, since the plant is leaving more life than itself.  And, the species can live again from the seed.  If each seed pod contains an average of 3 seed, then it will produce 78 seeds. From 4 seeds it produced 78. Pretty good! Right? Still, the survival of this species is not sure, since some seeds do not germinate.  Each generation of seeds faces different situation for growth. This species is dependent upon horticulturists to continue, but in nature it would be the environment that determines the seeds' fate. If conditions stay the same, this species has multiplied itself and life will continue.

Day 40 in the life of a Fast Plant

The skeleton of the plant records the relationship between the plant and human with each seed pod a success story of pollination and each thin twig off a stem a failure story for pollination. Pollination was both qualitative and quantitative, the swelling say the flower was pollinated and the number of swellings how good it was pollinated. One stem has about 20 un-pollinated pistils telling a story of an unfruitful period in the relationship between this plant and its horticulturist. One stem has 10 large green pods saying the horticulturist got the timing and technique correct. The plant is not at its end yet, since some seed pods are still green. Harvest time is the end of the story when all the pods have dry brown seeds, the seeds are deshelled, and stored dormant. The story can start again when the seeds are planted and germinate.

Day 39 in the life of Fast Plant

The dry seed pods without green chlorophyll contain seeds. Soon life will be gone for this plant. It will never exist again. However, half of its DNA is alive in the seeds. New life started at pollination with half of its DNA combining with half of another plants DNA and that grew into a small baby plant inside the seed pod. This small baby plant called an embryo was packaged into a seed. Seeds are dormant, sleeping, embryonic plants waiting for the right conditions to grow. Germination is when the seed grows on its own and is like the birth is of a baby.  So, is a seed alive? Yes, but asleep or dormant. What will wake up the seed? Warmth, moisture, and light. This is different than humans, we cannot keep our babies asleep for periods of time and wake them up later when things are good for growing, but plants can. If this plant was not pollinated, then no seeds would have formed, and life would not have continued.

Day 38 in the life of a Fast Plant

Seed pods are forming and the parent is dying. This phase puts the embryo of the new plant into a dormant state. When does life start for the new plant? Does it start when the seed germinates? No, the new plant life has already started when the flower was pollinated. Fast plants have to be cross pollinated, and therefore require pollination to start a new plant. Seed formation puts the embryo into a dormant state, a sleep state. Germination wakes up the embryo under the right conditions like warmth and water. So, the new plant has already started, but is being put into a temporary sleep state called seed protected by a pod until the right conditions takes place for growth.

Day 37 in the life of a Fast Plant

The first seed pod is forming. Most of the green chlorophyll has left the shell, but not all. Three seeds can be seen through the yellow part of the shell. The pod on the left appears to have only one seed, but is still green. A dry yellow pod is wanted because it means the seed has completely formed. The seeds have to be harvested by hand, because this plant was bred for indoors and is dependent on a horticulturist to harvest. In nature, seeds are dispersed by nature, like wind, water, bird, etc.  Harvest is the gathering of the seeds. Our harvest will be much like a farmer harvesting grains and done at one time.  

Day 37 in the life of a Fast Plant.

There are five basic parts of the seed 1) the cotyledon that will become the first leaves, 2) the epicotyl that will become true leaves, 3) the hypocotyl that will become the stem, 4) the radicle that will become the root, and 5) the seed coat for protection. One can identify these five parts in a peanut while the Fast Plant is still forming seeds. The seed contains the baby plant that will grow and sprout into an adult again. Everything is in the seed to start a new plant protected by a pod.

Day 36 in the life of a Fast Plant

Desiccation, the drying of all plant parts, is taking place in last phase. Like tree leaves in the fall, the leaves are losing their chlorophyll green color leaving behind yellow and purple. Chlorophyll is needed for plant growth, so this change means the plant is stopping to grow. Look at the small buds that are still emerging, and the plant will use what little chlorophyll it has left to produce one more set of flowers. The Fast Plant flowers in several waves, each time smaller in size and number. Since there is no change in seasons, this color change was determined by DNA coding. Water is need for life and removed for death. Drying up of the plant is necessary for the seeds to form, pods to fall, and life to continue.

Day 35 in the life of a Fast Plant

The plant embryo is fed through an umbilical cord while protected in the seed pod. Water and nutrients are delivered to the embryo through this attachment, and that is why the plant needs water while the leaves are seen drying up. This is a picture of a snap pea pod purchased at the grocery store. People eat plant embryos and seeds like snap peas, beans, and peanuts. They are a nutritious part of our diet. This attachment will dry up and come off leaving a mark on the seed called the hilum when the seed is formed.