Science Fair: Why don’t strawberries grow during the wintertime?


My 6 year old daughter was the inspiration for the PC grow box for her science fair project to figure out why strawberries don’t grow during the wintertime. She started by picking a strawberry plant from our garden (snow still on the ground) and we potted it in a terra cotta pot which she carefully painted ahead of time. We put it in the grow box in our garage with the lights on for 14 hours a day. As she saw significant changes in her strawberry plant we took pictures. After about a month of growing we went through the pictures and she wrote her report explaining the changes.

She definitely had a good time standing by her display proudly telling people about her project and answering any questions that the various visitors had. She did take a break to take a look at some of the other kids displays which I took note of the gardening related ones which would be great for a science projects for any of your budding scientists:

– Seed germination (soil or paper towel)
– How plants grow with different color of lights (colored transparent plastic)
– How plants grow when given different liquids (water, soda, milk, vinager, diet soda)
– Effects of being mean or nice to plants
– Effects of music on plant growth
– Hydroponics
– Effects of temperature on plant growth

7 Responses to “Science Fair: Why don’t strawberries grow during the wintertime?”

  1. Crafty Gardener Says:

    What a great science project and I’m sure your daughter learned a lot from doing it. I remember the days of science projects when my girls were in school.


  2. Anthony Says:

    This is great! I may have to borrow your idea when my kids are old enough to have science projects.


  3. Brianna Says:

    This reminded me of one of my science fair projects as a kid. I watered potted plants (I don’t remember what kind) with tap water, salt water, and sugar water to see what happened. I don’t remember exactly what happened to the plants, but I remember enjoying the project.I can’t wait to share stuff like this with my son!


  4. Amber Says:

    What a great idea!!!


  5. The Cheap Vegetable Gardener Says:

    It definately was a blast doing it with her, she is already talking about what she is going to do next year.


  6. plantgurus Says:

    Now that’s a great way to bond with family, and it’s educational, AND it’s fun! Great way to inspire your daughter, and I’m sure the other kids had fun watching what happened, too. I used to teach outdoor ed, so it’s always exciting to see the kids learn and have fun, too!


  7. Science Fair – Will smaller seeds sprout faster? Says:

    […] site was practically started because of my oldest daughters science fair project Why Don’t Strawberries Grow in the Wintertime?  Now with my youngest in kindergarten she was very excited to have a science fair project of her […]


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