Animals, Plants & Seasons 2-minute video · ages 4-8 · free coloring page
Will a watermelon grow in your tummy if you swallow a seed?
If you swallow a watermelon seed, will a watermelon plant grow inside your tummy?
2 min
If the video does not start, use the YouTube button.
Print, color, try
Free coloring page
The scene from the video as a coloring page, plus the three-sentence answer, the experiment, and a QR code back to this page. One sheet, US Letter, black and white.
The answer in three parts
Why?
-
The answer is no! A seed needs a few special things to grow.
Soft soil to hold its roots. Water to drink. Warm sunshine. Fresh air. And time, about a week just to pop open.
-
Your tummy has none of them.
It is dark in there, with no sunshine at all. There is no soil. And your stomach is full of strong, sour juice that breaks your food into tiny bits.
-
The seed just slides along for the ride.
It wears a hard, slippery coat, so the juice cannot break it open. It zooms through a very long, twisty tube called the intestine, like a slow water slide. It is always moving, so there is no time to grow. After a day or two, it comes out when you go to the bathroom.
For grown-ups: Swallowing a few watermelon seeds is safe. A seed that is swallowed whole is protected by its hard, slippery coat, so it passes through the stomach and the intestine and comes out after a day or two.
What a seed needs
- Soilto hold the roots
- Waterto drink
- Sunshinewarm and bright
- Airfresh air
- Timeabout a week just to pop open
Your tummy is not a garden!
A tiny experiment
Try it!
Grow a real sprout
You need: a black watermelon seed, a cup of soil, water, and a sunny window
- Wash a black seed from your watermelon.
- Plant it in a cup of soil, and water it.
- Put it by a sunny window. In a week or two, a little green sprout will say hello!
What happened? In the cup, the seed gets soil, water, sunshine, air and time. That is everything it needs.
Did you know?
In nature, this is how many plants travel! A bird eats a berry, flies far away, and drops the seeds in a brand new place, with a little bit of fertilizer too.
In many countries, people even roast watermelon seeds and eat them as a crunchy snack.
Your guide in this video
I'm Seedy, a little watermelon seed. Let's solve a very juicy mystery!
Seedy is a little black watermelon seed with a hard, slippery coat.
Keep asking
Next question
Animals, Plants & Seasons
How does a tiny seed grow into a giant pumpkin?
with Seedy · 3 min
More from Animals, Plants & Seasons
For grown-ups
Our videos are made for kids and play on YouTube. If your child watches in the YouTube Kids app with "approved content only", you can add our channel in three steps. See how.
No ads, no sign-up, no cookies, no tracking.