Growing Peanuts
Within two weeks, round leaves will begin to sprout and your child will be growing peanuts!
By: Trish Kuffner, author of The Children's Busy Book
Growing Peanuts
Materials
- Glass or plastic container (about six inches wide and four inches deep)
- Potting soil or earth without lumps
- Sand
- Fresh, unroasted peanuts in the shell
- Water
Directions
- Have your child fill a container about two-thirds full of potting soil or earth without lumps.
- Mix a little sand with the soil.
- Remove the shells from five peanuts and place the nuts on top of the soil in your container. If you are using a clear container, place the nuts near the edge so you can see them grow.
- Cover the peanuts with one inch of soil. Place the container in a warm, sunny spot and keep the soil damp.
- In about two weeks, round leaves will begin to sprout. When the tallest plant is about five inches high, remove the other plants from the container and throw them away.
- When the plant is about a foot tall, it will have yellow flowers on it that will fall off.
- Smaller flowers that form on each stalk will develop fruit that will start bending toward the soil.
- The fruit will push its way into the soil, and a peanut will form at each tip.
- You can dig up the peanuts when the leaves begin to turn yellow.