Wednesday 29 June 2016

Growing our own Cress.


Last week I thought I would try something that I had never done before. Grow some cress! I thought it would be a nice activity to get Lily to help with. 
I had no idea how it would come out but thought I would give it a go and so read up on how to do it.

It was quite simple. 


All you need are seeds, a container, and cotton wool and water from the tap. 



I let Lily place the cotton wool into the glass container that I found and I pressed it down and then added a little water to dampen it. 


Then all you do is add the seeds. Which I let Lily do, and then I spaced them out a little more around the container. 




And then just place in a spot that gets light and wait. 

A few days later we saw a little progress and it has already started go grow a decent amount. Each day I would just add a trickle of water to the container. A few hadn't sprouted which is the brown that you can see. 


And then just over a week later we had a fully grown cress plant. Lily didn't really understand that we had made it grow but was interested to see the plant. We only used a few seeds and have loads more left so we can make more. 


I think next time we may try and be a little more creative and use a decorated yogurt pot and draw a face on the pot. So then the cress acts as hair!

Very easy and fun activity to do with your children teaching them about gardening and the science of growing a plant.

Have you ever made your own cress?

46 comments:

  1. Aww, we've not done this for ages! I might get my teenage daughter on this again, shes suddenly decided her favourite sandwich is cress sandwiches and has had them every day this week for school

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  2. I haven't grown cress since I was a child - I must try it again

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  3. I have and still do
    Tastes better than shop bought

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  4. We grew cress last year after my son loved the 'eggy heads' episode on Bing. Their website had a count down sheet that they colour in after each sleep until 7 sleeps have passed and the cress has grown. Was a lovely activity, shame he refused to eat it :P

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  5. Aww! I don't think I have grown cress since I was at school. What a great activity x

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  6. excellent! we used to grown a kidney bean in a jar with kitchen roll in the same way!(Kim Styles)

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  7. excellent! we used to grown a kidney bean in a jar with kitchen roll in the same way!(Kim Styles)

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  8. Started my own now won't be long growing

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  9. Started my own now won't be long growing

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  10. A lovely activity to get the munchkins introduced to growing foods :)

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  11. A lovely activity to get the munchkins introduced to growing foods :)

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  12. A fab activity to include all the kids with different ages. It's for a while since we did it last time.

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  13. A fab activity to include all the kids with different ages. It's for a while since we did it last time.

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  14. We are currently trying to grow cress. My 6 year old loves it :)

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  15. It's important for children to learn how things grow. This is a good idea to start with.

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  16. The kids love growing cress because its almost instant isn't it and very easy to do!! One of my first memories at school was growing cress in collton wool balls

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  17. With my kids we used to regularly grow various types of edible plants indoors which we could then eat once they reached a good size. We used to grow not just cress, which we loved in sandwiches, but also alfalfa (also good in sandwiches instead of lettuce) and mung beans, which give you the type of bean sprouts used in Chinese cooking.

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  18. Such a simple thing to do to get them wanting to grow

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  19. Oh I remember growing this when I was a kid lol, I also did it with my boys they lived it

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  20. Good idea for a project over the easter holidays thankyou

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  21. I can remember doing this in school when I was little way back in the 70s lol still fun today to do with children and so easy to do xx

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  22. It's surprising how easy it is to grow

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  23. Ashleigh Allan22 July 2017 at 15:51

    Aw we love doing this. Easy and fun

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  24. I'm going to do this with my kids, they would find it very interesting!

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  25. I have done this with my grandson who loved watching it grow.

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  26. We draw faces on the jars and then watch teh ahir grow.

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  27. I used to love this activity in school, I'm going to have to do it with my children xxx

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  28. I remember doing this when I was young. Funnily enough I've not thought to do it with my own kids. Am definitely going to try now you've reminded me. They'll love it!

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  29. I remember doing this when I was little. It then came up as a practical for my A Level in Biology!

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  30. used to do this with an egg shell when mine were little paint a face on and the cress becomes "hair"

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  31. This is such fun for little ones, i can remember doing this when i was little myself....

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  32. such fun and not long to wait to see results

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  33. I thought this had died out and I am so glad that you are doing it now. It is such fun and tasty too.

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  34. This is such fun to do with children and they love the fairly instant results.

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  35. Aww it's so much fun growing your own cress and it tastes so much fresher than shop bought too :) x

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  36. Your posts can be said to be very useful.

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  37. i remember doing this in school would love to do with my daughter

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  38. I grew this as a child, did it with my kids and now with my Grandchildren, they love it, and because they grew it, they have it in their sandwiches which is good

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  39. Margaret Clarkson
    Such a great activity for all ages.

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  40. I love the idea of painting a face on the pot and making the cress the hair. I also love egg and cress sandwiches so this is a winner all round.

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  41. I really need to do this with my kids so I can make egg and cress sandwiches with them afterwards. I haven't grown cress since I was at primary school

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  42. My daughter used to love growing cress, would now be a good thing to do with my grandson as he loves gardening.

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  43. I will have to do this with my grandson, it's great that it grows so fast!

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  44. I haven't grown cress for years! Fun idea to draw a face and use it as hair!

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