LEARNING ACTIVITY
Propagating from fruit and vegetable scraps
Category: Food Production
Climate Region: Arid | Temperate | Tropical
State or Territory: ACT | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC | WA
Age Range: 0-7

STORY

Eliza was very excited to share with her Junior Landcare group at school that her little brother had found some little plants poking out from their compost pile. They couldn’t believe how new life was coming from food scraps! This gave Ms Gorman an idea for their next Junior Landcare group activity.

“We are going to use kitchen scraps to propagate or grow new plants. We will learn that food scraps are still alive, and with proper techniques that we can help them regrow. It won’t be long until we are producing some food of our own!”

ACTIVITY OVERVIEW

We’re going to use fruit and vegetable scraps to propagate or grow new plants! Investigating plant growth engages young learners in a hands-on science project and helps illustrate plant features and life-cycles. Your plants can even be planted into the garden to produce a future crop.

Outcomes

For children to:

  • engage in a hands-on investigation
  • understand that plants have features such as roots and leaves
  • monitor the changes they observe
  • appreciate that living things have needs in order to survive and thrive
  • make connections to how the food they eat looks as a plant.
SEASONAL NOTES

This activity can be undertaken at any time of year. Keep your plant experiments indoors where temperatures are more consistent in a reasonably well-lit spot is a good way to help them grow.

Did you know?

Growing a plant from stems is called vegetative propagation.

Did you know?

When you propagate a plant from cuttings, stems or other parts of vegetation, you are making a copy of the previous plant. Growing plants from seed creates a brand new plant.

Did you know?

Some plants are able to reshoot after they have been chopped because it helps them cope with animals eating them.

Did you know?

Your sprouting scrap won’t be able to live its entire life in the water – it will need to be planted in soil when it is strong enough so that it can obtain nutrients through its roots.

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Why not try one of our other Junior Landcare learning activities?

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