Soy cultivation in the middle of Nordend: Goethe School takes part in research project
12.06.2018 – An all-day class at the Goethe School is taking part in a nationwide research project and has planted soy in the Nordendgarten.
The children in class 2b at Goethe School have been hard at work over the past few weeks: Meadow and bedding flowers provide colorful splashes of color and attract bees, strawberries continue to ripen, potatoes, radishes, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and currants have been planted, the pumpkins for the Hessischer Rundfunk competition are thriving there and a separate soybean field has been planted for participation in a nationwide project.
The area cultivated in this way, the previously unnoticed raised bed on Goetheplatz in Nordend, measures just 50 square meters, but Fatima, Elias, Osman, Mert, Ines, Elena, Joseph and their 14 other classmates are making good use of it. The initiative for the planting campaign came from "Besser leben in Offenbach", a joint project of the city administration and Stadtwerke Offenbach. The Nordend garden was redesigned in cooperation with the school's all-day class.
Twelve different soy crosses
In addition to the strawberries, whose ripeness the children constantly keep an eye on, the soy plants are currently getting a lot of attention from the young gardeners. They grow in rows on six square meters. Twelve rows, each with twelve different soy crosses, were planted by the class together with project manager Sabine Süßmann and are watered daily.
With the bed in the heart of Nordend, the children are taking part in the "Soy Experiment. 1000 gardens. 2.0", a joint project of Taifun-Tofu GmbH and the University of Hohenheim, in particular the State Seed Breeding Institute. It is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In addition to the Nordendgarten, a further 1200 gardens are now involved throughout Germany.
The aim of the project is to find out which soy plants are suitable for regional cultivation. According to the project's website, soybeans from Germany mean "a sustainable supply of vegetable protein, short transportation routes, support for local agriculture and a traceable and secure origin."
Observation forms are filled out
Some of the Nordend gardeners are not sure whether they have ever eaten soy. But watching the plants grow is fun, they say.
The seeds, which are free from genetic manipulation, were provided to "Besser leben in Offenbach" and the Goethe pupils together with observation sheets developed by the University of Hohenheim. For the children, this meant After sowing, observing when at least five seedlings have emerged from the soil in the first row, entering this in a table and later pulling as many of the total of around 50 germinated beans out of the soil so that the others have a good chance of growing. And in between, the children have to water again and again in this hot spring - every day, Sabine Süßmann takes over at the weekend. The seedlings sown at the beginning of May are now about the height of a child's knee. "They're starting to flower now," say the pupils, referring to the observation sheets on which they can now fill in a new column in the table.
Harvest after the summer vacation
After the summer vacation, the beans will be harvested. However, unlike the potatoes or berries growing on Goetheplatz, they are not eaten by the children but sent to the university. The university evaluates the yield from Nordend and compares the values with those from the other 1200 gardens. If a certain type of soybean is then cultivated on a large scale in Germany on the basis of the research results, the children from the all-day class will have made their contribution.