Growing from a seed
Biology · Early Years · The School
Inside a seed
A seed looks still. It is resting, waiting to wake up. Inside, a tiny plant is curled up. A carrot seed is tiny. A sunflower seed is a bit bigger. It waits for the right things to happen. Then it can wake up and grow into a real plant, just like the ones in a garden.
What wakes a seed up
A seed needs water to wake up. A seed needs warmth too. Most seeds sit in soil to grow. A seed left in a dry cupboard will not grow at all. Give a seed these things and it starts to grow. We call this waking-up step germinating. It is the very first step of all.
From seed to seedling
First, a root grows down into the soil. It drinks water there and holds the plant steady. Then a shoot pushes up. It grows up, up, towards the light. Two small leaves open wide. Now the tiny plant is called a seedling, and it is ready to grow bigger.
Let us follow one sunflower seed. Imagine a class pushes it into damp soil in a pot. They wash their hands after touching soil. They keep the pot warm and water it gently. The seed coat soaks up water. It swells and splits. Next, a root grows down. Then a shoot grows up towards the light. Two seed leaves open out. Now it is a seedling. The class keeps watering it. By the end of summer their sunflower is taller than the teacher. That seed was small enough to hold in your hand. Some kinds of sunflower can grow up to 4 metres tall. So a small seed made a tall plant.