Coloring Celery Experiment

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How do plants get the nutrients they need? Let’s find out.

Coloring Celery Experiment

I am always looking for fun ways to incorporate science in our homeschool. Science is such a fun and exciting adventure that helps us answer questions about the world around us. Have you ever wondered how nutrients enter our food? Have you ever wondered how the soil and water actually help plants grow? Well, if you have, this simple science experiment will help you understand just that. Before we get started with our Coloring Celery Experiment, please take a moment and pin this post to your science or homeschool board.

Here are the details, so you can try this yourself!

What do plants need in order to grow and be healthy?

Sunlight? Air? Water?  Ice Cream? The right temperature? Soil? Room to grow?

Okay, ice cream is just on the list to see if you were paying attention, but the rest are all correct answers. Have you ever wondered how plants pull water out of the soil with their roots and send it up to the rest of the plant? Try this, and you’ll see how it works!

Coloring Celery Experiment Supplies

What You Will Need:

• Notebook/ Journal,
• Pen or Pencil,
• Crayons,
• Tall clear containers (glass or vase works well),
• Water,
• Red and/ or Blue food coloring (Use liquid food coloring, not the gel kind.),
• A long piece of celery with the leaves still attached

Result Timing: Overnight but a few days are even better!

 Coloring Celery Experiment Part 1

What To Do:

1. In your journal (I will post an entry on how we made/decorated ours) you will write down what your experiment is on the top eg. Coloring Celery. You may want to write down your observations (things you see) of what the celery looks like before you do anything. Isabella drew a picture and colored it.
2. Then you should make a hypothesis or prediction of what is going to happen when the experiment is complete.
3. After the experiment or while you are conducting it you may want to write down any observations. You may also draw an after picture and color it in.

  Coloring Celery Experiment Part 2

1. Fill your 2 clear containers with water. You can do this experiment with one container and one food coloring but we wanted to see if we split the celery how would it absorb the water, would it come out with two different colors?
2. Once your 2 clear containers are filled with water you then add the food coloring to each container. One with a few drops of red (stir) and one with a few drops of blue (stir).
3. (Have Parent) Cut the bottom off the celery and slice it in half but keeping it attached.
4. Then place each half into a container filled with your colored water.
5. Wait overnight, or a couple of days (the color gets darker the longer it is in the water).
6. Record your results. Was your hypothesis right? What is different about the celery after being in the water? Color a picture of how the celery looks now.

Coloring Celery Experiment In Action

How the Coloring Celery Experiment Works

When a plant’s roots grab onto water from the soil, or, like our celery, from the water they’re standing in, the narrow tubes in the plant’s stem (kind of like drinking straws) carry the water upward to the other parts of the plant. This is called capillary action (a capillary is a very narrow tube). Since water molecules stick together, each tiny bit of water that enters the tubes at the bottom of the plant pulls up more water molecules with it.

You can try this experiment this colored water experiment again with a white carnation or daisy. Write down your prediction first and then compare it to what actually happens.

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