Tomatosphere

[fight4my3sons]

http://www.tomatosphere.org/index.html

A friend of mine who homeschools her 12 yr old son sent me this link. She did this with her son last year and said they really enjoyed it. Thought I would pass it along.

[mzteris]

1. thanks for the link.

It sounds fun and interesting. Did she do it with a group or just her son?

[fight4my3sons]

2. Just her son.

At least that is what I get from the info she sent to me.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. This is great!

I just signed up, and sent the link to our homeschool group. Thanks! :hi:

[fight4my3sons]

4. You are so welcome!

I just got our seeds a couple of days ago ( one package marked R and one marked S), as did my friend (I don't know what hers are marked). Here is her email to me about her experience from last year:

Hey – we got our seeds yesterday in the mail – of course we need to wait a couple of months… but I think this year we are going to start them indoors. Last year they were blowing all over the place outside – so I need to find a nice sunny spot that Mike will approve of.

Our seeds last year - I don’t remember the letters – we had one group that was exposed to weightlessness and one group that was a control. Actually neither group did spectacular. We waited way too long to transplant – should have been done after a week – or two at the most… and we had way too many plants in three pots – so I think it decreased the plants ability to produce tomatoes. We only had about 2 per plat – and we had nearly 40 plants survive.. so not nearly as many tomatoes as we expected!

Marshall learned a ton of info about the scientific method last year also… he “doctored” his information… so looking at his data, both groups were germinating and doing great.. then after he analyzed his data, he realized that he had made a big mistake and could not justify which group actually had the better germination rate (based on the data he was collecting). Looking at the plants we could tell that the one group did germinate later and less. But – Marshall’s data did not show that – and we discussed how bad data would skew the entire experiment if reported incorrectly. Like I said HUGE learning experience for him. When the seeds came yesterday his first comment was “I’m going to do this right this year – accurate data.” I was so - so - so pleased to hear that!

Anyway – wow – haven’t rambled on like this in a while – hope you get your seeds soon!!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. Let's keep in touch about our results...

It'll be interesting!

We have flourescent lighting in our basement that can be lowered to serve as grow lamps for germinating seeds. Timmy's really excited about it!

[fight4my3sons]

6. ok..

that would be great! I am simplifying everything since Max is 4, but he is very interested and excited to do this. I will also keep you informed of how my friend is doing with her son.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. How long does it take to get the seeds?

We haven't received them yet, so I'm wondering If I should contact them.

[fight4my3sons]

8. It seems like I got mine pretty quickly. I would contact them.

If you don't get any. I will split mine and send you some if you want :-)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. I just got them today...

:D

[fight4my3sons]

11. We finally started our seeds...

I know it's a late start, but our weather has been crazy and I'm just starting everything. We had a frost warning last night. Here's a picture of the boys putting the soil mix in the tray. Yes, my older son is wearing a Toucan suit. He found it at a yard sale and has grown quite fond of it ;-)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. We got a late start on ours, too.

Our weather was pretty wacky early in the month.
So far nothing's come up, but hopefully soon. :-).

[qanda]

10. Thanks for this

I signed up a couple of weeks ago. I'll check in with my results.