Jan. 25, 2006

Grow Some Mold

You can grow mold on a piece of bread. Molds, fungi, and mushrooms are related. They grow by living on something else: tree bark, rotted leaves, or even bread. They grow from spores, not seeds. Tiny cases release spores that travel through the air and create new mold plants.

Materials

• White bread
• Jar with lid
• Water
• Magnifying lens

Wet a piece of fresh white bread. Put it in the jar, fasten the lid, and put it in a cupboard for a few days. You'll notice the soft, feathery mold plants begin to grow right away.

Find an old orange that has green mold on it. Keep it in a jar in a dark warm place. In a few days, the mold will grow and look like fluffy spider webs.

Use a magnifying lens to look closely at the little stems with tiny black knobs on them. These are spore cases. Each case holds thousands of spores. When the mold ripens, the spore cases break open and the spores travel through the air to begin new mold plants. The air we breathe is filled with mold spores, but we can't see or smell them.

It's fun to experiment with mold plants. Compare light and dark, or warm and cold growing conditions. Also, try growing mold in a dry or moist place. You'll discover how they grow best.

Reprinted with permission from Green Thumbs: A Kid's Activity Guide to Indoor and Outdoor Gardening by Laurie Carlson. Published by Chicago Review Press, distributed by Independent Publishers Group (www.ipgbook.com). Copyright © 1995 by Laurie Carlson.

Talk Back: Do you have any comments about this activity? Send them to us using the form below.

I have my parent's permission to submit this.
First name:		Age:
City:		State:	AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM NV NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV WY
E-mail:
Comment: