July 24

Lots of exciting new changes have been happening in the greenhouse. New seeds came in so we began experimenting more with growing the seedlings in specific shapes. We used chia and clover as they are less unruly than other seedlings, hopefully allowing them to maintain a shape, and sprout up extremely fast.

(Clover)

The rye grass doesn’t maintain shapes as well because once the grass has grown tall enough it ends up flopping, metaphorically and physically. The chia and clover do a good job sprouting up densely which is a bonus for creating a defined shape as is creates a solid amount of green space, but it loses the nuances of the leaf shape we glued them to.

We experimented with the way in which we glue the seeds to the cardboard shapes. The three ways we tried were:

Glue, seeds, soil

Glue, soil, seeds, soil

Seed, glue, mist

(Chia)

We also experimented with covering the seeds with a damp paper towel as a means of watering them. While the seeds sprouted with this method the paper towel tended to stick to the seeds and cardboard, making it difficult to remove without taking off some of the seedlings. It also made the cardboard cutouts more apt to growing the white mold I had seen on my experiments in previous seed and moss trials.

I’ll have to begin brainstorming shapes that will allow the seedlings to maintain the form while they sprout. I think part of the issue is smaller shapes have details that are closer together, so when the seeds sprout their leaves spread open and cover the details, like the gap that is supposed to represent the vein of the leaf. I want to experiment with a larger shape, but at the same time I don’t want to feel like I’m wasting seeds in order to cover it.

Apart from the new seeds I checked up on my last experiment with the shapes being covered/uncovered. Needless to say, the uncovered seeds are in some rough shape. It’s good to know that mixing soil with the glue doesn’t give the seeds enough to sprout.

(Rye Grass Experiment from July 11 post)