Pinecone Planters

This one was more just for fun, than for any kind of scientific exploration.

While we had our pile of pine cones gathered up, brainstorming possible crafts or experiments, we wondered if we could plant something in them.

Would they hold enough dirt to allow seeds to grow?

Would watering make them close up, and keep them from allowing the seeds to sprout?

If the seeds did sprout, would the pine cones look like tiny, little evergreen trees?

With these questions in mind, we searched through our cupboard for a packet of grass seed (leftover from our preschool days), placed our pine cones into cut-off Dixie cups, and headed outside to sprinkle them with dirt...

...and water...

...before adding seeds.  It was at this point, that I realized I'd been thinking of tiny birdseed type seeds, not giant, good for toddler hands type grass seeds.  In fact, it might have been the image of a pine cone covered in peanut butter and birdseed, that made us wonder about whether seeds would grow when planted on a pine cone, in the first place.

We did our best with the larger seeds, placing them as carefully as we could into the dirt covered shelves.  Finally, we spritzed them down one more time with water...

...and placed them in a sunny windowsill.  

We watered them every day.  The pine cones did close up when watered, and since we kept them pretty wet, they stayed closed.  We figured this would probably keep our seeds from sprouting.  But then, after about a week of waiting and watering, we saw the first signs of sprouts of grass pushing out from between the scales.

So far, they don't look anything like tiny trees...

...but their kind of interesting to look at, all the same.