Upstart Magazine

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Grow your own Beanstalk

Step aside Jack, it’s time for us to plant our own beans and watch them push out roots, sprout stems and grow leaves!

Will your beanstalk reach the giant’s castle?


What you need…

  • Paper towels

  • Warm shallow dish of water

  • Water spray bottle

  • Broad bean seeds

  • Large jar


What to do…

  1. Pre-soak your seeds in warm water for up to 24 hours. This will help to soften the outer shell, so they will grow faster.

  2. Wet the inside of the jar by swirling a small amount of water around the inside of it.

  3. Lightly dampen a few paper towels with some sprays of water and push them into the jar.

  4. Place a few seeds into the tissue-filled jar where you can easily see them.

  5. Put your jar on a sunny windowsill.

  6. Spray the paper towel and seeds every few days with water.
    It should take about two days before you see roots shooting.

  7. When your beanstalks grow some leaves, plant them in a bigger pot filled with soil. When they grow even bigger you can plant them outside and wait for the yummy broad beans to grow!
    Top Tip - Make sure you brace your beanstalk to supporting steaks to protect it against the wind as it grows taller.


How to make a giant’s castle…

In the well-known fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack’s mother (thinking the beans are worthless) throws Jack’s magic beans out the window and into the garden. Overnight a beanstalk grows up past the clouds and leads to the giant’s castle. Why not make a giant’s castle for your beanstalk to grow to?

What you need…

  • Card

  • Colouring pencils or felt pens

  • A kebab stick or chopstick

  • Scissors

  • Glue

  • Tape

  • Cotton wool


What to do…

  1. On the card, draw a castle, colour it in and cut it out. 
    We glued a cotton ball to the bottom of ours and added glitter glue to make it look like it was sitting in the clouds.

  2. Attach the castle to the kebab stick or chopstick.

  3. With the tape, attach the stick to the jar. 


I spy with my little eye…

Can you spot these things as your plant grows?

  • Small primary root.
    This emerges out of the splitting seed.

  • Offshoots (secondary roots).
    These are the offshoots that grow from the primary root and spread out for support and nutrients.

  • The Stem growing upwards.
    The stem pushes the plant closer to the light of the sun and transports water up through the plant.

  • Leaves forming.
    Leaves use the energy from the sun to make food for the plant - this is called photosynthesis.

  • Flowers growing.
    These attract insects to help pollinate the flower.


Experiments to try…

To soak or not to soak?

We put three pre-soaked beans in a marked jar and three un-soaked beans in another jar (unmarked) and watched to see which had shoots emerge first.

The pre-soaked beans shot out roots in the first few days and even after five days, the un-soaked bean seeds produced no roots!

Sun lovers or shade seekers?

We observed that the beans which were on the shady side of the jars were growing much faster than the others. Do they grow faster when their light source is mostly coming from above rather than all around?

You could try wrapping the jar in a piece of black card to see what happens.


Did you give it a go?

Send us a photo of your beanstalk and what you learnt and you might find your creation featured on the Upstart website … AND win a prize!