Rocket seeds from space

Schoolchildren from a Sidmouth school have planted rocket seeds, some of which have been into space, with a little help from Otter Nurseries.

Marilyn White, founder of the garden centre in Ottery St Mary, visited St John’s International School with donations of seed trays and compost to assist with the experiment, organised by the RHS to see if there is any difference between ‘space seeds’ and normal seeds.

Two kilograms of seeds were sent up to the International Space Station on Soyuz 44S in September 2015, and British ESA astronaut Tim Peake took charge after his arrival in December. The seeds were held for six months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March this year.

Four schoolchildren from St John’s planted 100 seeds from a red packet, and 100 seeds from a blue packet. The colour coding indicates which seeds went into space, but no-one apart from the experiment organisers knows which is which.

Mrs White said: “We had fun getting our hands dirty with compost – rocket seeds are tiny and the children had to be careful to make sure they got one seed in every section.

“I’m not sure myself what difference there will be between the seeds, but it will be interesting to see what happens when they start to grow.”

After planting, the St John’s School seeds were taken to the school’s greenhouse where the children will look after and water them over the next six weeks before contributing their data to the RHS. 10,000 schools across the UK are involved in the experiment.