Matariki Planting

Today we had Eli come in and talk to us about Matariki and why it is important to begin planting seeds now for the new year. We teamed up with P3 and were their Tuakana. We planted seeds, weeded the glasshouses and the gardens surrounding the glasshouses. We are looking forward to seeing the seeds grow. A big thank you to Eli for coming in and helping us.

Propagating Plants!

Today Rueben taught us how to propagate plants. He showed us the steps we need to take in order to grow new plants from 'mother plants'.

After Rueben showed us we went back to class and wrote some instructions to share with the Year 7's. Here's what we came up with...

Step One: Find the node (The node is a bobble where the two leaves come out of the stem)

Step Two: Cut the stem just below the node

Step Three: Pull one leaf off, making sure you don't damage the node

Step Four: Cut the stem on the opposite angle to the leaf that has just been removed

Step Five: Dip the end of the stem into rooting hormone

Step Six: Make a finger hole in river sand (It has to be river sand because it is neutral. Beach sand contains salt and soil has too much bacteria growing in it)

Step Seven: Carefully place the cutting into the sand

Step Eight: Spray the cutting with water (This has to be done because the cutting has no roots and it is unable to get moisture from the ground) 

Step Nine: Cover with plastic

Step Ten: Spray the cutting everyday. Roots will soon grow and once they have, the cuttings are able to be planted in soil and new plants will grow!