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.