Who would think of pouring peas into plaster? And if someone did, what would happen? The experiment is focused on the observation of the sprouting of peas (Pisumsativum) poured into plaster.

The paper’s goal is to find out how the sprouting of peas would look in such environments that are not exactly natural. One of such environments is plaster. Peas was poured into plaster and then its sprouting was observed with aid of photography. The force of the sprouting was so immense that the top layer of the plaster was risen by 2cm. It all happened in two days. After a two week observation we could see beautifully grown peas sprouts, as we can see at the end of the video.

Work procedure

The procedure was fairly simple. All we need is a see-through plastic cup, plaster, water, peas, camera, tripod, lamp and a dark room. First we mix the plaster, then we fill half of the cup with it, then evenly stack peas and add another layer of plaster.

Because the plaster is white, we place the cup so that the background is dark. We get the tripod and the camera ready and we are ready to gebin. The interval between each photo was one hour, but it could have been much shorter at the beginning. I recommend we take two to four photos during the first three to five hours. I have been observing the growth for three days, but two days would have been plenty.

And how did I make the video? Nothing too difficult. I imported the photos into Windows MovieMaker and set speed to 2x. We can move the speed as we like of course.

What was it for?
I have encountered such work procedure for the first time. The most difficult was to take the photos, as we needed to mind the light and the time, so that the spouting procedure would be even. I would definitely recommend everyone choose shorted interval at the beginning of the shooting (15-20 minutes during the first 3-5 hours). Otherwise it was a very easy job and I encountered no serious problem.

By Apolena Novotná