Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hello and welcome to some story with Mr Ewing.
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You know, today we're gonna do some hands on learning.
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I think it's always important not only to learn information,
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but actually put that information to use.
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So today we're gonna take what we learned in the
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story. The carrot seed.
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We saw our character plant a carrot seed.
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Take care of that seed and watch it grow.
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So today we're gonna do something called Let's Build a
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Greenhouse. Now I bet you're wondering what is a greenhouse?
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Well, I'll tell you this.
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It's not Green adds a big misconception.
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When we hear the word greenhouse, I automatically think well,
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must be house that's green.
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Actually, the house is clear.
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It's made of plastic or glass to let the light
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through, but to trap the heat inside.
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And gardeners and botanists around the world used these houses
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to grow plants, and we're going to do just that.
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We're gonna build a greenhouse.
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So why make a greenhouse?
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Well, we are going to grow some plants in it,
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but we're gonna actually use the mechanics of greenhouse with
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the clear outside to use it as a way of
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seeing our plants in a different way than we normally
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see plants grow.
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So when we normally plant seeds, we wait, as we
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did in the carrot seed for them to actually push
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their way up to the dirt and actually bring the
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plant to the surface.
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But we want to get in and actually see the
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plant growing, or the seed actually sprouting into its plant
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for shooting out its roots and then slowly pushing the
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plant up.
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So you're probably thinking, Mr Ewing, I have space to
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build a greenhouse inside my home.
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Well, you're probably right.
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Basic backyard Gardener has a lot of times will have
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a small green house like this, but some greenhouses are
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even bigger.
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Have big metal structures and plexi glass or acrylic or
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actual glass so that we build structures that we can
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actually walk into and garden in year round.
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Some structures get huge, and one of my favorite all
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time greenhouses is actually the Botanic Gardens in Washington, D.
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C. R US Botanic Gardens.
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Um, it's a pretty amazing sight.
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If you ever get to D.
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C. And see it inside is probably one of the
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best collections and diverse collections of plants grown around the
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world for you to actually go in and explore.
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But again, you're probably thinking, Mr Ewing, I don't have
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enough space to do something so big.
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And you're right.
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We're actually gonna build something very small but our own
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little greenhouse.
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So we're gonna use the materials that you confined around
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your house.
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Um, we need it's ah, couple of plastic cups, some
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paper towel, some dried seeds.
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These can't be key.
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Can they need to be dry seeds and take and
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a little bit of water?
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And that's all you're gonna need.
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So we're gonna look at that and choosing and preparing
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our materials.
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So what you want to do is hopefully find a
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plastic cup.
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Now you can use a plastic container, and if you
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want, you can even take a plastic soda bottle and
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cut that off.
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Now, if you're gonna be using scissors, please make sure
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that your parents do this for you for safety reasons.
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So we're gonna look at, um, using basically a plastic
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cup, and to get that started, we're going to actually
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need to have a plaice small plastic cup.
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Now, this could be any color clear, whatever, But what
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you're gonna do is you're going to with a pair
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of scissors, cut off the bottom.
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I've got my sister's here so I can finish the
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taking off that bottom so that it's you got a
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hole in the bottom.
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Now, if your cup cracks or anything like that, don't
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worry about it.
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It's all fine.
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So what you're gonna need to do is you're gonna
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take the basic piece of paper towel any paper towel
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will do.
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Toilet paper will also work something that has some absorbency
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to it.
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And then you're going to take that and you're going
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to just wrap it around this cup now, also, take
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a little piece of tape and just tape that anyplace
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so it'll look like this.
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Now, once you've got that part of it done, what
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you're going to do is work on adding in your
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seeds. So you're gonna take your big cup and you're
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gonna actually put this cup inside like this.
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No, don't push it all the way down yet because
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that's where it's gonna be really important that we have
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the space and, um will push it down once we
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get our seeds inside.
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So what we do next is actually take some of
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our seeds.
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Now, if you look from our picture here, we want
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to put our seeds down between the clear plastic cup
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and your paper towel.
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No, in the picture, I used just brown paper towel.
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In the example I'm showing you I'm using a white
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paper towel.
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Really? Doesn't matter.
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You just need something that's going to absorb the water
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now something that I have found that helps when you
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do your seeds is take a pencil or a chopstick,
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and this will help you push your seeds down.
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You don't want to push him down all the way.
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You just want to make sure that they have enough
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space, like in the picture.
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And then once you've done that, you're actually going to
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then push it down and it will sandwich your seeds
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between the paper towel and your cup.
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Now, what you're going to do then, is ad in
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enough water that will about 1/2 inch.
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You might have to use more, but you want to
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make sure that the water fills all the way up
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to the paper towel.
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Paper towel is gonna actually soak up that water and
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make sure that your seed is still moist and receiving
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the water without flooding it.
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If we had just dropped the seeds in the water,
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the seeds would get oversaturated and it would just rot
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them. So the paper towel actually wicks the water up
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and allows our seed to get just enough water so
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that it can start to grow.
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Now you have actually started to create your greenhouse.
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Now there's a couple things we can do.
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We don't want to keep it open here because if
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we do that, then it's not really a greenhouse.
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What we want to do is actually create something that
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will cover the top.
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And it could be anything.
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Like I said, if you want to cut open some
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plastic bottles, anything that will create a cover that will
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trap in the moisture but will also trap in a
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little bit of heat, this will actually help our seeds
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to grow quicker.
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Now, once you have done that, here comes the hard
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part. You're gonna have to take some time and wait.
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It takes about a week, Um, and you will start
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to see, um, your plants starting to sprout now what
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will happen is the seed all the way on the
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left hand side of your screen is how it will
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go in.
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But over the next week, you will start to see
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that seed to start a shootout routes.
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Now, I suggest that you make sure you plant a
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couple seeds within your greenhouse so that, um, not all
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seeds will actually.
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So make sure that you add in a couple and
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then watch it over time.
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Now, here's where it gets really tricky.
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You have to pay really close attention because once your
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seeds start to sprout in, the plants start to come
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up. You have to make sure that once that does
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happen, you take off the cover of your greenhouse because
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there's not gonna be enough room for that.
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Just sprout.
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Now, if you don't have anything to put on top
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your cup of little pieces.
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Saran wrap of work are clear plastic or anything you
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want to put it on with rubber band.
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Get creative because I know we have limited supplies at
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home. I want you to use whatever you have.
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Um, the biggest part is that when you're creating your
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seat greenhouse that you use a clear cup or container
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jars will work anything that's clear so that you can
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actually see the sprouting process.
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That's the most important part of this.
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Now, once you do get to the point where you
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want to start to add dirt, this is work.
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It's really tricky.
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So once you've got your seed sprouting, your plants are
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growing. If you want to add in dirt because your
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plants will actually survive in just water, but the plants
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actually need the nutrients in the soil.
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So what you're gonna do is very carefully.
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You can now remove this plastic cup from the inside
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and you can actually put dirt.
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And the paper towel will actually kind of, um, not
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dissolved, but it will get eaten up by the dirt,
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and it's not gonna hurt your plants.
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And then you'll actually have some plants.
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Now, at one some point, they're probably gonna outgrow this
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container. You wanna actually transfer them to a garden or
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indoor pot and then see what kind of things you
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can grow?
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Um, again, use whatever materials you have at home.
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This is the most important thing is that we get
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an opportunity to actually see the sprouting process of your
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seeds, and I look forward to hearing back from you
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are seeing what you get to do and what you
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get to grow.
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So thank you for tuning into stem story with Mr
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Ewing and get some plants growing.
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Have a great day.